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THE   LAWS   OF   DAILY   CONDUCT 

By  NICHOLAS  PAINE  OILMAN 


Health   of  mind  consists   in   the   perception   of  law 

Its  dignity  consists  in  being  under  law 

Emebson 


THE 


LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT 


BY 


NICHOLAS    PAINE    OILMAN 


6- 7  7 '4 


Health  of  ntitid  consists  in  the  perception  cf  laui 
Its  dignity  consists  in  being  tender  law 

Emerson 


■mbM 


gLbfMrr£ii5r33rrg:rj 


Tirr.iiiTrrrfm-,^ 


BOSTON    AND    NEW    YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 
<^\>t  lli\Ji'rs"iiJi'  ?9rrss,  "JTamliiibOE 
1S96 


N 


Copyright,  1891, 
By  NICHOLAS  PAINE  GILMAN, 

All  rights  reserved. 


Tfie  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  aud  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Company. 


37 


€a  tt)t  ^aUc  ^rniii  af  Ccarl)crg 

This  attempt  to  aid  the  cause  of  Moral  Education 

in  the  Public  Schools  of  America  is 

dedicated  with  sincere  esteem. 


O'er  wayward  childhood  would'st  thou  hold  firm  rule 
Aud  sun  thee  in  the  light  of  happy  faces, 
Love,  Hope,  and  Patience,  these  must  be  tliy  graces  ; 
And  iu  thine  own  heart  let  them  first  keep  school. 

For  as  old  Atlas  on  his  broad  neck  places 
Heaven's  starry  globe,  and  there  sustains  it,  so 
Do  these  upbear  the  little  world  below 
Of  education  —  Patience,  Love,  and  Hope. 
Methinks  I  see  them  grouped  iu  seemly  show, 
The  straightened  arms  upraised,  the  palms  aslope, 
And  robes  that,  touching  as  adown  they  flow, 
Distinctly  blend  like  snow  embossed  in  snow. 
Oh  part  them  never  !    If  Hope  prostrate  lie, 

Love  too  will  sink  aud  die, 
But  Love  is  subtle  and  doth  proof  derive 
From  her  own  life  that  Hope  is  yet  alive ; 
And  bending  o'er  witli  soul-transfusing  eyes, 
And  the  soft  murmurs  of  the  mother  dove, 
Wooes  back  the  fleeting  spirit,  and  half  supplies  ; 
Thus  Love  repays  to  Hope  what  Hope  first  gave  to  Lova. 
Yet  haply  there  will  come  a  weary  day, 

When  overtasked  at  length, 
Both  Love  and  Hope  beneath  the  load  give  way. 
Then  with  a  statvie's  smile,  a  statue's  strength, 
Stands  the  mute  sister  Patience,  nothing  loth. 
And,  both  supporting,  does  the  work  of  both. 

Coleridge. 


PREFACE. 


The  American  Secular  Union,  a  national  association 
having  for  its  object  the  complete  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  but  in  no  way  committed  to  any  system  of 
religious  belief  or  disbelief,  in  the  fall  of  1889  offered 
a  prize  of  one  thousand  dollars  "for  the  best  essay, 
treatise  or  manual  adapted  to  aid  and  assist  teachers  in 
our  free  public  schools,  and  in  the  Girard  College  for 
Orphans,  and  other  public  and  charitable  institutions, 
professing  to  be  unsectarian,  to  thoroughly  instruct 
children  and  youth  in  the  purest  principles  of  morality 
without  inculcating  religious  doctrine." 

The  members  of  the  committee  chosen  to  examine 
the  numerous  MSS.  submitted  were  :  Eichard  B.  West- 
brook,  D.  D.,  LL.  B.,  President  of  the  Union,  Philadel- 
phia ;  Felix  Adler,  Ph.  D.,  of  the  Society  for  Ethical 
Culture,  New  York ;  Prof.  D.  G.  Brinton,  M.  D.,  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania ;  Prof.  Frances  E.  White, 
M.  D.,  of  the  Woman's  Medical  College,  and  Miss  Ida 
C.  Craddock,  Secretary  of  the  Union.  As,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  a  majority  of  the  committee,  no  one  of  the 
MSS.  fully  met  all  the  requirements,  the  prize  was 
equally  divided  between  the  two  adjudged  to  be  the 
best  offered,  entitled  respectively,  "Character  Build- 
ing," by  Edward  Payson  Jackson,  one  of  the  masters 
of  the  Boston  Latin  School,  and  "  The  Laws  of  Daily 
Conduct." 

Although  the  two  books  were  written  with  no  refer- 


vi  PREFACE. 

ence  to  each  other,  they  seem  to  be,  both  m  manner  and 
matter,  each  the  complement  of  the  other.  The  defi- 
ciencies of  each  are,  in  great  measure,  supplied  by  the 
other.  While  "Character  Building"  is  analytic  and 
cast  in  dialogue  form,  the  present  work  is  more  gen- 
eral and  synthetic  in  its  style  and  treatment.  The  two 
are  therefore  published  in  a  single  volume,  as  well  as 
separately,  at  the  earnest  request  of  the  Union,  and  the 
authors  hope  that  the  joint  book  will  be  preferred  by 
purchasers.  Much  of  the  matter  in  the  introduction  to 
"  The  Laws  of  Daily  Conduct "  is  equally  pertinent  to 
"  Character  Building." 

The  authors  of  both  books  are  friends  to  religion,  and 
they  have  written  from  a  deep  conviction  that  there  is 
a  great  need  of  instruction  in  morals  in  the  public 
schools.  Experience,  however,  has  amply  proved  the 
inexpediency  of  the  attempt  to  teach  ethics  there  on  a 
religious  basis.  Of  the  success  of  this  endeavor  to  place 
the  study  on  a  scientific  basis  others  must  judge.  But 
in  a  country  marked  by  a  great  diversity  of  creeds,  the 
way  of  practice  is  surely  the  one  way  to  follow.  To 
teachers  and  parents  who  would  not  neglect  the  main 
matter  of  human  life  while  imparting  general  know- 
ledge, I  offer  this  volume,  in  the  hope  that  it  may  be 
somewhat  of  an  aid  in  moral  training  in  the  home  and 

in  the  school. 

N.  P.  G. 


CONTENTS. 


» 

Page 
Introduction:  Morals  in  the  Public  Schools. 

Can  they  be  Taught  ? 1 

Should  they  be  Taught  ? 6 

The  Best  Way 10 

Nature  and  Design  of  this  Book        ....  15 
Chapteb 

I.   Life  under  Law 21 

II.   Obedience  to  Moral  Law 34 

III.  Self-Control 45 

IV.  Truthfulness 55 

V.   The  Law  of  Justice 66 

VI.   The  Law  of  Kindness 75 

VII.   The  Great  Words  of  Morality  ,        .        .        .        .80 

VIII.    Home 94 

IX.  Work 100 

X.  The  Law  of  Honor 106 

XL   Personal  Habits 114 

XII.   Our  Country         ........      122 

I.  Patriotism         ........  122 

II.  Political  Duty 125 

XIII.  Character 130 

XIV.  Moral  Progress 137 

XV.  Life  according  to  the  Golden  Rule  ....  144 


INTRODUCTION. 


MORALS  IN  THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 

This  small  volume  has  been  written  to  aid  teachers 
in  public  and  private  schools,  and  parents  in  the  home, 
in  the  very  important  work  of  the  moral  education 
and  training  of  the  young.  As  it  is  intended  prima- 
rily for  professional  teachers,  it  has  been  put  into  a 
form  supposed  to  be  especially  suitable  for  their  use. 
But  I  trust  that  some  fathers  and  mothers  will  be  glad 
to  take  hints,  at  least,  from  these  pages.  A  line  drawn 
between  education  at  home  and  education  in  the  school- 
room is  surely  somewhat  artificial  when  the  subject  is 
such  a  matter  as  the  right  direction  of  the  whole  life. 
The  distinction  between  the  home  and  tlie  school  in  this 
connection  is  not  that  the  home  has,  properly,  a  mo- 
nopoly of  moral  instruction,  but  that  the  field  of  the 
school  is  the  more  restricted. 

There  are  three  important  questions  relating  to  the 
teaching  of  morals  in  public  schools  which  may  well  be 
answered  here,  before  we  take  up  the  main  subject  of 
this  book. 

Can  morality  be  taught  in  these  public  institutions, 
supported  as  they  are  from  taxes  laid  upon  the  whole 
community,  without  doing  injustice  to  any  portion  ? 
This  question,  in  our  present  condition,  resolves  itself 
into  two  distinct  inquiries.  1.  Can  ethics  be  taught 
in  our  common  schools  without  sectarianism,  but  from 
a  religious  standpoint  ?  For  one,  I  should  answer  this 
question  without  hesitation  in  the  affirmative.    It  seems 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

to  me  possible  to  teach  the  primary  truths  of  practical 
morals  (all  that  it  is  wise  in  any  case  to  attempt  in 
schools  open  to  all),  grounding  them  on  the  great  propo- 
sitions of  natural  religion  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
no  reason  for  offence  to  any  person  who  accepts  these. 
But  this  task,  confessedly  difficult  when  we  simply 
mark  the  many  diversities  of  religious  belief  in  our 
country,  it  seems  inexpedient  to  undertake  when  we 
remember  that  a  considerable  number  of  our  fellow- 
citizens,  who  are  likewise  taxpayers,  declare  themselves 
to  be  destitute  of  any  religious  belief,  or  even  vigor- 
ously opposed  to  all  forms  of  religion.  A  much  larger 
number  of  persons,  again,  are  believers,  but  are  none 
the  less  hostile  to  any  inculcation,  in  the  public  schools, 
directly  or  indirectly,  of  any  form  of  theology  or  reli- 
gion. They  consider  the  State  to  be,  properly,  a  purely 
secular  institution,  and  they  would  not  have  it  wound 
the  conscience  of  any  citizen  by  teaching  morals  from 
a  religious  point  of  view.  Granting  that  this  would  be 
the  unavoidable  effect  with  some,  be  they  few  or  many, 
of  the  attempt  to  give  ethical  instruction  on  the  basis 
of  natural  religion,  we  are  led  on  to  the  second  question 
under  this  first  head. 

2.  Can  morality  be  taught  in  our  public  schools  in 
complete  separation  from  religion  and  theology,  from 
what  may  be  called  "  the  scientific  standpoint "  ?  Can 
instruction  in  practical  ethics  be  so  given  that  no  injus- 
tice shall  be  done  to  any  portion  of  the  community,  re- 
ligious, unreligious,  or  anti-religious  ?  In  other  words, 
is  there  a  common  ground,  in  the  duties  and  rights  con- 
fessed by  all,  on  which  the  teacher  may  stand  and  give 
tuition  in  morals  as  securely  as  he  does  in  geography  or 
arithmetic  ?  This  question  would  probably  be  answered 
in  the  negative  by  the  great  majority  of  persons  in  our 
country.  They  would,  it  is  most  likely,  say  that  while 
the  teaching  of  morality  without  sectarianism  is  difficult, 
to  teach  it   omitting  religion  entirely,   even   so-called 


MORALS  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  3 

"natural  religion,"  is  practically  impossible.  As  the 
present  book  is  an  honest  attempt  to  do  precisely  this 
thing,  it  is  evident  that  I  emphatically  differ  with  the 
great  majority  on  this  point. 

It  remains  for  the  reader,  or  the  user  rather,  of  this 
volume  to  determine  its  value  as  an  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion whether  morality  can  be  taught  from  the  scientific 
standpoint  in  our  common  schools.  The  work  must 
speak  for  itself,  but  the  fact  that  it  is  a  manual  of  prac- 
tical morals,  not  a  short  treatise  on  ethical  theories,  will 
at  once  suggest  to  many  that  the  most  troublesome  of 
the  supposed  obstacles  in  the  way  of  moral  education 
are  left  on  one  side.  In  fact,  I  have  aimed  as  directly  as 
possible  at  actual  practice  ;  I  have  so  far  omitted  ethical 
theory  that  it  would  not  be  strange  if  some  should  be 
uncertain  whether  to  rank  the  author  in  this  school 
of  ethical  theorists  or  in  that :  he  may  belong  to  none  ! 
Such  uncertainty  would  be  a  source  of  gratification  to 
him,  as  an  indication  o£  his  success  in  keeping  to  the 
ground  where  all  schools  agree.  The  great  facts  and 
the  main  laws  of  the  moral  life  are  obvious  to  all  ma- 
ture men  and  women  ;  certainly,  they  are  not  depen- 
dent, for  their  clearness  and  their  binding  force,  upon 
any  notions  as  to  the  origin  either  of  the  universe,  of 
mankind,  or  of  the  perception  itself  of  these  facts  and 
laws.  The  fq^ts  of  astronomy  which  affect  men's  daily 
life  —  such  as  the  so-called  rising  and  setting  of  the 
sun,  the  phases  of  the  inoon,  and  the  phenomena  of 
the  ocean  tides,  for  instance  —  are  plain  to  every  one ; 
the  explanation  of  them  given  by  the  astronomer  to  the 
farmer  and  the  sailor  (whether  correct  or  not)  will  not 
essentially  change  the  arts  of  agriculture  and  navigation. 
So  the  common  practical  duties  of  human  beings  have 
long  been  familiar.  Each  new  generation  must  learn 
them  afresh,  indeed,  but  it  learns  every-day  morality  as 
an  art,  not  as  a  science.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the  prac- 
tice, not  in  the  theory.     Philosophers  may  dispute  as 


4  IN  TR  OB  UCTION. 

to  the  exact  reason,  why  a  man  loves,  or  should  love,  his 
mother ;  but  the  duty  of  loving  one's  mother  is  not  a 
question  considered  open  to  discussion  in  common  life. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  other  obligations  which 
make  up  the  substance  of  their  duty  for  the  great  mass 
of  mankind,  in  all  but  exceptional  times  and  situations. 
When,  then,  we  have  in  mind  as  a  subject  for  public- 
school  instruction,  not  the  science  of  ethics,  not  the 
speculations  of  moral  philosophers,  but  the  orderly  pre- 
sentation of  the  common  facts  and  laws  of  the  moral  life 
which  no  one  in  his  senses  disputes,  we  perceive  how 
the  religious  or  theological  difficulty  at  once  disappears, 
to  a  large  degree.  There  is  possible  a  theistic  expla- 
nation of  the  moral  law;  there  is  possible  an  atheistic 
explanation ;  but  there  is  a  third  course  open  here  to 
the  common-school  teacher,  —  to  attempt  no  such  iinal 
explanation  at  all !  It  is  not  necessary  for  him  to  teach 
that  morality  rests  upon  religion  as  its  ultimate  foun- 
dation ;  it  is  just  as  unnecessary  for  him  to  teach  that 
religion,  on  the  contrary,  reposes  iipon  morality  as  its 
basis.  Let  the  relation  of  religion  and  morality  be  as 
it  may  be  :  the  teacher  is  not  called  upon  to  decide  an 
issue  of  this  magnitude.  He  can  teach  the  duties  of 
ordinary  life,  showing  their  reasonableness  and  their  in- 
terdependence, in  a  consecutive,  orderly  manner,  without 
appealing  to  religion ;  he  can  use  the  plain  and  usvial  con- 
sequences of  actions,  good  or  bad,  as  reasons  for  morality, 
without  being  open  to  a  just  accusation  of  irreligion. 
These  consequences  as  he  should  teach  them  are  ad- 
mitted by  all.  He  has,  then,  a  right  in  reason  to  stop 
with  them,  because  of  the  practical  limitations  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  time  at  his  disposal,  the  immaturity  of 
the  faculties  Avhich  he  is  training,  and,  most  of  all,  be- 
cause of  the  wide  difference  of  men's  minds  as  to  the 
final  explanation.  The  intuitionist  and  the  utilitarian 
agree  in  attaching  much  importance  to  the  consequences 
of  action  as  a  test  of  its  moral  quality.     So  far  as  these 


MORALS  IN   THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  5 

two  keep  coinjiany,  the  teacher,  tlien,  may  safely  and 
properly  go  along  with  them,  not  because  he  is,  neces- 
sarily, in  his  own  theory,  an  intuitionist  or  a  utilitarian, 
but  because  he  is  on  common  and  undisputed  ground. 
The  condicct  of  mankind  is  but  little  affected  by  theories 
of  the  origin  of  the  moral  sense ;  this  is  in  the  highest 
degree  true  of  the  children  in  our  schools.  If  the 
teacher  will  constantly  bear  in  mind  tliat  religion  is  not 
morality,  but  an  interpretation  of  the  whole  of  human 
life  and  the  universe,  he  will  see  that  he  is  not  unre- 
ligious  or  anti-religious  in  giving  to  moral  instruction  a 
practical  limit,  such  as  I  have  indicated,  in  a  scientific 
presentation  of  practical  duty  —  its  facts,  its  methods, 
and  its  laws  —  fitted  to  the  scope  of  the  child's  mind. 

Such  a  limitation  bars  out  all  matters  of  theological 
controversy.  The  sectarian  difficulty  and  the  religious 
difficulty  in  moral  education  disappear  when  we  keep 
to  conduct  and  its  common  laws,  and  stop  short  of  theo- 
logical or  philosophical  explanations  wht/  right  is  right 
or  wrong  is  wrong.  If  sectarians  or  religious  people  of 
any  faith  should  denounce  this  abstinence  from  disputed 
matter  as  in  itself  unwise,  Avrong,  or  sinful,  we  must  ask 
them  to  consider  more  carefully  that  the  public  schools 
are  for  all,  and  that  the  only  ground  on  which  they  can 
stand  and  teach  is  common  ground,  —  as  much  in  moral- 
ity as  in  arithmetic  or  language.^ 

The  first  question  as  to  the  teaching  of  morals  in 
schools  —  the  question  of  its  possibility,  in  justice  to  all 
kinds  of  religious  belief  and  no-belief  —  has  detained  us 

1  The  ancient  philosophers  disputed  long'  and  to  little  profit  over 
a  question  which,  as  Dr.  Jowett  says,  "no  one  would  either  ask  or 
answer  in  modern  times,"  —  "  Can  virtue  be  tauglit  ?  "  In  the  Pro- 
tagoras of  Plato,  Socrates  maintains  that  it  cannot  be.  But  this  "  is  a 
paradox  of  the  same  sort  as  the  profession  of  Socrates  that  he  knew 
nothing.  Plato  means  to  say  that  virtue  is  not  brought  to  a  man,  but 
must  be  drawn  out  of  him ;  and  that  it  cannot  be  taught  by  rhetor- 
ical discourse  or  citations  from  the  poets."  The  discussion  is,  to  us, 
pure  logomachy. 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

long  enough.  Allowing  that  such  instruction  on  ground 
common  to  all,  believers  and  unbelievers,  and  in  a  sci- 
entific manner,  is  possible,  the  second  inquiry  arises : 
Is  it  desirable  to  give  general  moral  education  in  the 
schoolroom  ?  The  objection  from  sectarianism  and  di- 
versity of  religious  beliefs  has  been  anticipated.  If  it 
is,  in  fact,  possible,  and  even  far  from  difficult,  to  teach 
morality  scientifically,  giving  no  reasonable  ground  of 
offence  to  the  various  sects,  —  any  or  all  of  them,  —  then 
the  further  question  of  the  desirability  of  imparting  in 
the  schoolroom  a  knowledge  of  moral  law  may  be  dis- 
cussed on  other  grounds. 

On  general  principles,  the  common  criticism  of  oiir 
public-school  system,  that  it  looks  too  much  to  purely 
intellectual  results,  and  that  it  has  too  little  influence 
upon  the  life  of  pupils  after  they  have  left  school,  tends 
strongly  toward  giving  moral  instruction,  now  much 
neglected,  a  more  conspicuous  place  in  the  school  course. 
Many  of  the  arguments  forcibly  used  to  recommend  in- 
dustrial training  bear  upon  moral  training  as  well.  Fair- 
minded  critics  who  are  among  the  warmest  friends  of 
the  common-school  system  find  its  chief  defect,  where 
it  has  been  carried,  as  in  the  large  cities,  to  its  highest 
pitch  of  apparent  excellence,  in  its  actual  overrating  of 
knowledge  alone.  Sheer  luemorizing  and  cramming  for 
examinations  are  generally  to  be  condemned  on  purely 
intellectual  grounds.  The  training  of  the  mental  pow- 
ers of  children,  which  is  surely  a  most  important  part;; 
of  the  teacher's  duty,  is  very  inadequate  when  the  two 
processes  just  named  occupy  the  place  of  real  honor  in 
the  educational  course.  The  lack  of  adaptation  to  the 
needs  of  real  life  in  which  such  a  partial  education 
results  has  long  been  obvious. 

One  good  remedy  for  the  old  narrow  and  injurious 
insistence  upon  sheer  book  knowledge,  gotten  by  heart 
and  recited  by  rote,  is  the  industrial  training  which 
takes  the  boy  or  girl  away  from  textbook  and  recita- 


MORALS  IN  TUE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  7 

■tion  for  a  part  of  tlie  school  day,  ami  educates  the  hand, 
the  eye,  and  the  practical  judgment  in  other  work.    It 
is  a  new  discipline  of  the  mind,   compared  with  the 
usual  round  of  study,  and  it  complements  admirably  the 
intellectual  training  given  by  even  the  best  teacher  of 
book  knowledge.     But  it  is,  as  well,  a  new  moral  disci- 
pline in  the  virtues,  the  very  essential  virtues,  of  work. 
If  the  pupils  are  required  to  do  their  manual  exercises 
in  the  training  shop  with  neatness,  alertness,  and  steady 
attention,  with  economy  of  time  and  material,  and  with 
a  thorough  interest  in  their  work,  the  total  discipline 
of  mental  faculties   and  the   moral  nature   is  in  the 
highest  degree  helpful  toward  true  success  in  after  life. 
This  kind  of  education  boys  and  girls  out  of  school, 
and  men  and  women  earning  their  living,  must  get  from 
actual  life ;  a  gradual  transition  to  it  from  the  education 
chiefly  by  books  is,  therefore,  most  advisable.     Indus- 
trial training,  to  be  of  any  worth,  involves  no  small 
amount  of  moral  training,  given,  of  course,  by  the  same 
person.     The  latter  discipline,  equally  as  a  matter  of 
course,  is  not  to  be  imparted  in  recitations  from  a  book  ; 
it  is  given,  as  in  the  actual  industries  of  men,  by  the 
word   and   the  example  of   the   skilful  and  energetic. 
There  can  hardly  be  any  dispute  as  to  the  desirability  of 
moral  training  in  connection  with  this  department  of 
education ;  no  separation  of  industrial  and  moral  edu- 
cation is  possible.     The  "  virtues  of   work,"  as  I   call 
them  further  on,  are  indispensable  to  technical  skill  and 
to  business  success. 

Numerous  educators,  however,  will  dispute  the  advis- 
ability of  giving  formal  instruction  in  morals  in  our 
schools  as  they  are  now  conducted  (without  any  provi- 
sion for  industrial  training) ;  they  take  this  ground 
even  when  convinced  that  the  difficulties  arising  from 
sectarianism  and  religion  in  general  have  been  over- 
rated, and  can  be  surmounted  by  the  exercise  of  care 
and  judgment.     They  say  that  the  schoolroom  has  a 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

necessary  moral  discipline  of  its  own,  which  is  enforced 
by  every  capable  teacher ;  that  it  is  not  well  to  go  be- 
yond this  ;  that  the  number  of  branches  of  study  in  our 
schools  is  already  sufficiently  great;  and  that  moral 
education  is  the  proper  function  of  the  home  and  the 
church.  But  I  quite  fail  to  see  why  the  moral  matters 
which  are  continually  coming  up  in  the  schoolroom, 
whether  practically  in  the  actual  discipline,  or  theoret- 
ically as  suggested  in  the  reading-books  used,  should  be 
thus  artificially  divided  from  the  ethics  of  the  rest  of 
life.  The  set  teaching  of  arithmetic  and  geography, 
for  instance,  is,  indeed,  the  peculiar  task  which  parents 
confide  to  the  schools ;  but  the  instruction  which  bears 
on  character  is  not  to  be  dismissed  by  the  teacher,  on 
his  side,  as  a  thing  to  be  attended  to  entirely  by  the 
child's  guardians  at  home  or  in  the  Sunday  school.  This 
would  be  taking  altogether  too  limited  and  partial  a 
view  of  moral  training.  Wise  instruction  in  the  art  of 
right  living  in  human  society  can  hardly  be  too  fre- 
quent ;  the  practice  must  always  be  going  on,  so  long 
as  we  live  here  on  earth,  and  help  in  making  that  prac- 
tice better  and  more  successful  is  not  likely  to  be  too 
insistent. 

The  child  spends  its  earliest  years  entirely  at  home, 
and  its  parents  are  responsible  for  the  moral  influences 
which  shape  its  infant  character.  When  he  is  five  or 
six  years  old,  he  is  sent  to  school  for  some  thirty  hours 
a  week  out  of  the  one  hundred  or  so  which  are  not  given 
to  sleep.  Henceforth  the  responsibility  of  moral  in- 
struction must  be  divided  between  the  parent  and  the 
teacher ;  but  much  the  larger  share  continues  to  fall 
upon  the  home  authorities,  of  course.  Such  obvious 
duties  of  the  schoolroom  as  obedience,  industry  in  study, 
punctuality  in  attendance,  and  ordinary  politeness,  even 
if  thoroughly  enforced,  are  far  from  exhausting  the 
moral  range  of  the  life  at  home,  with  its  more  frequent 
and  varied  opportunities  for  the  display  of  good  or  bad 


MORALS  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  9 

character,  in  word  and  act.  But  though  the  father  and 
the  mother  cannot  properly  throw  the  whole  burden  of 
the  moral  training  of  their  children  upon  any  person  or 
persons  beyond  the  home  circle,  they  naturally  look  for 
a  vigorous  reinforcement  of  their  own  efforts  from  an 
institution  so  expressly  adapted  to  training  as  the  public 
school,  with  its  special  buildings,  its  determined  hours, 
its  professional  teachers,  and  its  ample  apparatus  of 
instruction  and  discipline. 

The  teacher  who  draws  an  artificial  line  in  the  child's 
life,  dividing  intellectual  training  from  moral,  to  devote 
himself  to  the  first  and  throw  the  entire  burden  of  the 
second  upon  the  home,  commits  not  only  a  blunder,  but 
also  an  offence.  The  child  is  growing  as  a  moral  being 
in  school  hours  as  well  as  out  of  them.  In  them  there 
are  some  special  advantages  for  effective  ethical  teach- 
ing which  the  home  does  not  possess.  The  teacher  and 
the  parent  are  even  more  natural  allies  in  this  direction 
than  in  the  field  of  purely  intellectual  effort.  Every 
public-school  teacher  is  bound,  then,  I  hold,  to  make 
the  school  hours  a  time  for  instruction  in  character,  so 
far  as  this  is  compatible  with  the  chief  object  of  im- 
parting the  elements  of  knowledge.  But  this  does  not 
by  any  means  necessarily  imply  that  we  shall  add  a 
new  branch  to  the  course  of  study,  which  is  often  too 
full  already  of  varied  subjects,  or  that  textbooks  of 
virtue  or  moral  theory  shall  be  put  into  the  hands  of 
children  in  order  that  they  may  learn  to  define  elabo- 
rately and  recite  by  rote  the  rules  and  distinctions  of  a 
formal  morality.  On  the  contrary,  I  can  imagine  few 
studies  more  dry,  repulsive,  and  ineffectual  in  reaching 
their  proposed  aim  than  such  a  study  of  morals  !  In 
the  highest  degree  it  is  true  of  instruction  in  this  art 
of  life  that  it  should  come  direct  from  the  teacher's 
lips  and  pure  from  the  teacher's  heart  and  example.  I 
am  not  a  believer  in  textbooks  of  morals  for  the  use  of 
children  in  public   schools.     Buu  it  would  be  a  great 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

assumption  to  suppose  that  the  whole  great  army  of 
teachers,  as  a  rule,  are  already  entirely  competent  to 
give  familiar  talks  occasionally  on  points  of  good  con- 
duct, and  that  no  assistance  from  a  well-devised  hand- 
book of  practical  ethics,  especially  intended  for  their 
use,  could  be  of  value.  Manuals  of  the  art  of  teaching, 
in  general  and  in  particular,  are  multiplying  every  year. 
It  would  be  a  curious  exception  if  only  in  the  compara- 
tively untried  field  of  moral  instruction  the  teacher  Avere 
left  to  his  own  devices.  Precisely  the  opposite  method 
I  hold  to  be  adapted  to  the  actual  state  of  the  case ; 
in  no  part  of  the  common-school  course  should  a  good 
manual  for  teachers  be  more  welcome  or  more  profitable 
than  just  here. 

The  present  book  is  an  earnest  attempt  to  perform 
what  seems  to  be  the  much-needed  service  of  clearing 
the  mind  of  the  common-school  teacher  as  to  the  nature 
and  limits  of  the  moral  training  which  may  advisably 
be  given  in  the  schoolroom.  The  younger  and  more 
inexperienced  instructors  may  find  here  some  useful 
hints  as  to  the  best  way  of  putting  things.  But  I  shall 
leave  it  to  the  older  and  experienced  teachers,  who  have 
realized  the  desirability  of  moral  training,  to  answer 
the  third  question,  "' How  shall  morality  be  taught  in 
our  schools  ?  "  largely  in  their  own  way.  The  science 
of  education  has  been  amply  and  thoroughly  illustrated 
of  late  years  in  books,  many  and  excellent,  for  the  guid- 
ance of  teachers.  The  fit  methods  to  pursue  in  moral 
education  are  essentially  the  same  as  those  laid  down  in 
these  numerous  manuals  and  treatises  on  intellectual 
development  in  the  schools.  There  is,  of  course,  no 
fixed  and  plain  line  between  the  two  disciplines.  Wri- 
ters on  psychology  and  the  principles  of  education  now- 
adays devote  no  small  part  of  their  space  to  topics  which 
are  common  to  both.  Their  frequent  remarks  on  the 
training  of  the  will,  on  the  formation  of  habit,  on  the 
influence  of  association,  and  similar  subjects  are  of  vita] 


MORALS  IN   THE  PUBLIC  SCUOOLS.  11 

importance  to  the  proper  method  of  instruction  in  prac- 
tical ethics.  From  my  own  short  experience  as  an  edu- 
cator, but  much  more  from  observation  and  reflection  on 
the  matter,  I  offer  to  teachers  the  following  suggestions 
for  what  they  are  worth,  as  to  manner  and  method  in 
moral  education. 

The  one  principle  to  keep  firmly  in  mind  is  to  avoid 
didacticism  ("  preaching ")  as  much  as  possible,  and 
to  hold  fast  to  actual  life  as  children  already  know  it, 
or  may  easily  be  led  to  comprehend  it.  Concrete  in- 
stances of  right-doing  or  wrong-doing,  happening  in  the 
schoolroom  itself,  or  just  outside,  within  the  immediate 
knowledge  of  the  boys  and  girls,  afford  the  best  starting- 
point  for  talks  about  the  moral  points  involved.  It 
will  be  easy  to  bring  the  children's  minds,  through  a 
consideration  of  actual  examples,  to  recognize  in  some 
degree  the  general  principles  involved.  The  same  cau- 
tion needs  to  be  iirged  here  as  in  the  case  of  other  gen- 
eral notions,  against  haste  and  consequent  disregard  of 
the  immaturity  of  the  childish  mind.  But  if  the  teacher 
will  shun  formality  and  generality,  and  keep  mainly  to 
the  particular  and  the  concrete,  he  will  find  that  few  sub- 
jects interest  children  more  than  these  questions  of  right 
and  wrong  in  common  conduct.  These  men-and-women- 
to-be  find  j^eople  the  most  attractive  matter,  just  as  they 
will  find  them  later  in  life.  Man  is  not  only  the 
"  proper,"  but  also  the  most  engaging  "  study  of  man- 
kind," large  or  small.  Conduct  is  to  children,  who  have 
not  yet  entered  upon  the  great  activities  of  business, 
art,  or  science,  much  more  than  "  three  fourths  of  life," 
and  the  lines  of  it  on  which  they  are  beginners  will 
continue  unbroken  through  all  their  years.  Elaborate 
casuistry,  hair-splitting  about  imaginary  situations,  any- 
thing and  everything  in  the  line  of  pure  ethical  theory, 
should  be  utterly  tabooed  in  the  schoolroom.  But  with 
these  precautions  observed,  and  under  the  guidance 
of  a  teacher  of  well-developed  moral  sense,  boys  and 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

girls  between  eight  and  fourteen  years  of  age  (in  tlie 
grammar  schools,  where  moral  education  has  its  most 
fruitful  field)  will  reason  about  points  of  ethical  prac- 
tice with  interest,  and  often  with  a  freshness  and  an 
acuteness  that  are  surprising.  If  this  be  not  so,  then 
these  children  in  school  differ  very  much  from  these 
same  children  out  of  school ! 

If  the  course  of  study  is,  anywhere,  so  full  or  crowded 
as  not  to  allow  time  for  the  occasional  talks  (one  or 
two  a  week)  about  conduct,  which  I  should  advise  as 
the  best  method,  then  that  course  should  be  shortened 
by  the  omission  of  some  branch  of  much  less  use- 
ful knowledge  sure  to  be  found  in  it.  I  would  avoid 
set  times  for  these  conversations  ;  in  them  question  and 
answer  should  play  a  large  part ;  the  more  easily  (if 
not  very  frequently)  the  teacher  "  drops  into  "  one  of 
them  for  a  few  vivacious  minutes,  the  better.  Some 
incident  of  the  schoolroom  life  that  has  just  occurred, 
or  some  matter  in  the  lesson  in  reading  or  history,  may 
well  interrupt  the  routine  of  the  ordinary  recitation,  as 
the  teacher  asks  the  opinions  of  the  class  or  of  the  school 
on  the  moral  point  in  question,  incites  them  to  think 
more  carefully  about  it,  and  indicates  the  conclusion  to 
which  long  experience  has  brought  the  world  of  man. 
The  school  itself  will,  naturally,  supply  the  starting- 
point  at  least  for  the  majority  of  these  ethical  talks,  for, 
like  every  other  social  institution,  it  has  its  moral  law 
which  must  be  observed  by  all  its  members  in  order  to 
attain  its  end.  The  plainly  visible  chief  function  of  the 
public  school  is  to  impart  the  elements  of  knowledge. 
To  this  end  there  must  be  full  obedience  to  the  natu- 
ral authority,  the  teacher  ;  the  prescribed  conditions  of 
quiet,  order,  and  studiousness  must  be  observed  by  the 
pupils.  Punctuality  in  attendance  and  readiness  for  all 
the  exercises ;  truthfulness  in  regard  to  absence  from 
school,  tardiness,  or  any  other  failure  to  comply  with 
the  regular  order ;   honorable  conduct  with  respect  to 


MORALS  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  13 

methods  of  passing  examinations ;  polite  treatment  of 
the  other  scliolars ;  attention  and  courtesy  to  the  teacher, 
—  such  are  some  of  the  moral  necessities  of  the  school- 
room to  be  met  by  the  scholars. 

The  pupils  have  no  duties  which  should  not  be  met 
by  an  equal  faithfulness  to  his  duties  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher,  who  should  not  be  there  teaching  unless 
interested  in  his  work,  qualified  for  it,  and  industrious 
in  improving  his  practice  of  it.  He  must  be  just  and 
impartial  in  his  treatment  of  the  scholars  ;  he  must, 
having  the  authority,  exhibit  the  virtues  of  a  ruler. 
Teaching  politeness  and  honor,  the  instructor  should 
be  an  honorable  gentleman.  He  has  some  advantages 
over  the  parents  at  home  in  respect  to  the  moral  disci- 
pline demanded  by  the  schoolroom.  Indulgence  or  par- 
tiality for  any  individual  child  is  out  of  place,  of  course, 
whereas  at  home  it  may  sometimes  be  very  natural ; 
the  aim  of  the  school  is  more  limited  and  definite  than 
that  of  the  home ;  the  hours  are  set,  the  labors  are 
plainly  marked  out,  and  to  accomplish  them  success- 
fully something  like  military  discipline  is  necessary. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  teacher  has  no  direct  influence 
over  the  pupil  except  in  the  school  hours,  and  his  ear- 
nest efforts  may  be  rendered  almost  useless  by  the  in- 
difference, or  the  hostility  even,  of  parents.  But  none 
the  less  must  he  strive  to  connect  the  morality  of  the 
schoolroom,  which  he  can  enforce,  with  the  morality 
of  life  outside,  as  resting  on  the  same  general  principles 
of  reason.  While  the  first  rudiments  of  common  sense 
will  keep  him  from  speaking  of  any  vice,  such  as  lying 
or  stealing  or  drunkenness,  in  such  a  way  as  to  proclaim 
his  knowledge  that  it  prevails  in  any  scholar's  home, 
he  is  still  free  to  enlarge  upon  the  manifold  evil  con- 
sequences of  it.  Thus  his  word  may  help  somewhat  to 
keep  children  pure  in  the  midst  of  a  bad  home  atmos- 
phere, which  he  is  otherwise  powerless  to  change. 

"  Word,"  —  this  will  usually  be  easy  for  the  teacher 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

to  give  in  attempting  moral  education ;  but  nowhere 
else  does  word  amount  to  so  little  compared  with  ex- 
ample. If  the  word  is  not  reinforced  by  the  examj)le, 
its  influence  will  be  small.  The  demand  upon  the  pa- 
tience and  good  nature  of  the  public-school  teacher  is 
great,  and  by  the  vast  majority  the  call  is  well  met ; 
but  one  good  result  of  teaching  practical  morals  may 
be  in  that  reaction  upon  the  teacher  himself  which  is 
seen  in  other  lines.  What  one  teaches  he  learns  more 
thoroughly  than  in  any  other  way.  So  in  respect  to 
morals  :  the  conscientious  teacher,  who  cannot  fail  to 
apply  to  himself  and  his  own  conduct  the  precepts  of 
justice  and  kindness  which  he  instils  into  his  pupils' 
minds,  may  be  almost  as  much  benefited  by  the  study 
as  the  scholar.  John  Milton  thought  that  "  he  who 
would  not  be  frustrate  of  his  hope  to  write  well  here- 
after in  laudable  things  ought  himself  to  be  a  true 
jx)em  ;  that  is,  a  composition  and  pattern  of  the  honor- 
ablest  things ;  not  presuming  to  sing  high  praises  of 
heroic  men  or  famous  cities  unless  he  have  in  himself 
the  experience  and  the  practice  of  all  that  which  is 
praiseworthy."  As  Milton  would  have  the  poet  him- 
self a  poem,  so  the  excellent  teacher  of  morals  will  be 
morality  incarnate  ;  showing  forth  its  gospel  as  well  as 
its  law  in  the  daily  exhibition  of  sweetness  and  light, 
he  will  be  "  not  virtuous,  but  virtue  "  itself !  How  diffi- 
cult, but  how  necessary,  is  such  a  preparation  of  the 
heart  and  will  in  the  well-rounded  instructor  of  chil- 
dren or  of  men  one  does  not  need  to  reiterate  to  the 
teacher  who  has  found  his  true  vocation. 

A  single  caution  may  be  needed  here  by  the  most  con- 
scientious. Children  take  example  from  the  whole  man 
or  woman  instructing  them.  A  severe  conception  of  his 
duty  may  make  a  teacher  sometimes  harsh,  where  a 
little  measure  of  good  nature  would  be  more  effective 
in  correcting  the  offence.  "  You  have  not  fulfilled  every 
duty  until  you  have  fulfilled  the  duty  of  being  pleas- 


MORALS  IN   THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS .  15 

ant "  is  a  good  sayiug  to  remember  in  tlie  sclioolroom. 
Strength  of  mind  and  fulness  of  knowledge  have  a 
moral  bearing  on  the  teacher's  character ;  good  taste, 
refinement,  a  sense  of  beauty,  —  these  too  should  be  cul- 
tivated in  himself  by  the  instructor  of  youth.  They 
will  fit  him  to  be  a  better  and  more  persuasive  moral 
guide  ;  they  will  not  only  favorably  affect  his  own  char- 
acter, but  they  will  also  diffuse  a  moral  influence,  not 
the  less  powerful  because  of  his  unconsciousness  of  its 
existence. 

Having  answered  the  three  questions  as  to  the  possi- 
bility, the  desirability,  and  the  general  method  of  moral 
instruction  in  schools,  I  need  add  but  a  few  paragraphs 
on  the  nature  of  this  manual  and  the  best  way  to  use 
it.  It  is  intended  solely  for  the  teacher :  it  is  not  a 
catechism  for  the  scholar;  it  is  not  a  book  from  which 
the  teacher  is  to  read  selections  to  the  school.  It  aims 
solely  to  be  a  help  to  instructors  of  children  in  prepar- 
ing short  talks  on  practical  morals.^  There  is,  to  my 
knowledge,  very  little  helpful  literature  in  this  special 
field ;  and  in  what  there  is  I  have  not  happened  to  find 
any  work  which  takes  the  line  I  have  chosen  as  the 
best  to  follow.  In  this  venture  at  making  a  properly 
scientific  handbook  of  practical  ethics  to  aid  the  teacher 
as  he  is  aided  by  manuals  on  the  teaching  of  geogra- 
phy, arithmetic,  and  other  studies,  I  have  not  crossed 
the  line  between  morality  and  religion.  But  every  one 
who  uses  this  manual  should  beware  of  supposing  that 
because  the  author  has  omitted  appeals  to  certain  great 
beliefs  and  sentiments  of  mankind,  he  is  therefore  a 
disbeliever  in  them  I  am"  strongly  of  the  opinion  that 
the  line  followed  in  this  book  is,  substantially,  the  best 
to  take  ;  that  in  our  common  schools  it  is  well  to  begin 
and  to  end  as  I  have  done.     Parents  at  home,  preachers 

1  The  teacher  will  not,  for  this  reason,  think  the  style  of  these 
chapters  too  simple  ;  I  have  often  written  as  if  addressing  hoys  and 
girls. 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

in  the  pulpit,  or  teachers  in  tlie  Sunday  school  will 
supplement  a  distinctively  scientific  teaching  of  morals 
with  a  more  religious  or  theological  view.  But  no  one 
can  properly  say  that  the  method  here  taken  is  either 
anti-religious  or  anti-theological.  Morality  is  here  viewed 
as  a  practical  art  which  has,  of  course,  a  working  theory 
that  it  is  well  to  know ;  but  it  seems  unadvisable  to  ex- 
tend this  theory,  in  the  case  of  children  in  our  public 
schools,  by  bringing  in  considerations  which  are  dis- 
tinctively religious  or  theological.  Religion  may,  later 
in  life,  become  one  of  the  greatest  inspirations  to  good 
conduct,  and  a  rational  theology  may  supplement  a  prac- 
tical science  of  morals  most  happily.  Both,  however,  are 
here  simply  left  out  of  view  as  subjects  too  great  for  the 
common  school,  and  too  much  complicated  with  unset- 
tled controversies.  So,  likewise,  ethical  theory  has  been 
shunned,  in  order  to  make  clearer  and  easier  the  suffi- 
ciently difficult  task  of  the  teacher. 

When  the  teacher  who  takes  up  this  book  has  become 
well  enough  acquainted  with  it  to  sympathize  with  its 
spirit  and  appreciate  its  leading  ideas,  ha  will  be  wise 
if  he  uses  it  for  the  purposes  of  the  schoolroom  in  an 
independent  fashion.  I  would  not  advise  a  consecutive 
series  of  talks  to  the  scholars,  following  the  order  of 
the  chapters.  This  order  is  based  upon  a  logical  con- 
ception, but  the  development  of  it  is  meant  for  the  in- 
structor. The  matter  may  well  be  left  to  the  judgment 
of  each  individual  teacher  to  decide,  according  as  he  is 
more  or  less  inclined  to  system.  But  any  striking  oc- 
casion in  school  life  fitted  for  driving  home  a  moral 
precept  ought  to  be  improved  at  once,  without  regard 
to  the  place  of  a  given  duty  in  a  handbook.  A  very 
free  use  of  this  volume  will  be  the  best  use,  so  long  as 
its  method  and  spirit  are  accepted  and  folloAved.  This 
method  is  to  hold  fast  to  the  concrete  and  the  actual ; 
this  spirit  is  cleaving  to  righteousness  as  the  great  mat- 
ter in  human  life. 


MORALS  IN   THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  17 

These  fifteen  short  chapters  begin  with  a  simple  ex- 
phanation  of  Life  under  Law,  showing  what  it  means  to 
live,  as  mankind  does,  in  a  law-abiding  Universe.  The 
special  significance  of  Moral  Law  and  Obedience  to  it 
is  the  next  subject.  Obedience  is  possible  mainly 
through  the  power  of  Self-Control,  which  must  be  fun- 
damental in  the  nature  of  any  moral  being.  Exercising 
this,  he  can  practice  Truthfulness,  Justice,  and  Kind- 
ness, not  as  instincts,  acting  more  or  less  fitfully,  but 
as  perpetual  forces,  working  steadily  from  within.  Af- 
ter pausing  to  consider  the  Great  Words  of  Morality, 
such  as  "  duty  "  and  "  conscience,"  we  pass  to  the  groups 
of  duties  implied  when  we  speak  of  Home,  Work,  Honor, 
and  Personal  Habits,  —  the  last  phrase  covering  "  du- 
ties to  one's  self,"  as  we  often  hear  them  called.  The 
obligations  to  our  country  of  Patriotism  and  Political 
Duty  could  not  be  omitted  here.  The  meaning  of  Char- 
acter and  of  Moral  Progress  is  next  considered,  and  we 
conclude  with  a  chapter  on  life  according  to  the  Golden 
Kule,  the  most  important  precept  of  practical  morals. 

In  the  text  which  forms  the  body  of  this  book,  the 
teacher,  as  has  been  said,  will  not  find  discussions  of 
the  origin  of  the  moral  sense,  the  nature  of  conscience, 
the  final  test  of  right,  and  other  similar  matters  which 
belong  to  the  psychology  or  the  metaphysic  of  ethics, 
not  to  practical  morality.  He  will  do  well  to  consult, 
according  to  his  interest,  the  books  on  ethics  which  are 
occupied  largely  with  these  matters  ;  he  will  probably 
gain  more  in  the  way  of  illustrations  from  actual  conduct 
found  in  such  works  than  in  any  lasting  satisfaction  of 
his  own  mind  as  to  the  perennial  problems  of  ethics. 
The  constant  appeal  in  the  schoolroom  should  be  to 
experience  which  has  fully  shown  the  consequence  of 
obedience  and  disobedience  to  the  simpler  moral  laws  of 
conduct  here  treated.  Especially,  whenever  it  is  prac- 
ticable, should  the  law  in  question  be  traced  in  the 
experience  of  the  children  themselves,  in  what  they 


18  INTE  OD  UCTION. 

have  seen,  heard,  felt,  or  done,  at  home,  in  school,  or 

elsewhere. 

The  object  of  the  Notes  is  to  fnrnish  supplementary 

■  matter  to  the  text,  in  the  way  of  hints  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  subject;  illustrations  from  biography  and 
history,  which  could  only  be  referred  to  here  ;  quo- 
tations, or  references  to  passages,  from  great  writers, 
particularly  the  poets  and  moralists,  bearing  upon  the 
point  of  conduct  in  question ;  and  occasional  indications 
of  places  in  the  works  on  ethics  generally  accessible  in 
which  these  points  are  well  treated.  It  is  evident  that 
these  Notes  might  be  extended  almost  indefinitely  ; 
comparatively  few  are  given,  and  in  this  direction  es- 
pecially the  manual  will  need  revision.  The  skilful  in- 
structor, accustomed  to  teach  without  relying  upon  a 
book,  will  know  how  to  take  the  material  in  the  text 
and  the  notes,  work  it  over  in  his  own  mind,  and  give 
it  forth  in  a  form  suited  to  the  needs  of  the  schoolroom 
and  the  hour. 

One  more  suggestion  remains  :  the  songs  sung  in  the 
school  may  be  made  influential  in  bringing  home  a 
sound  moral  lesson  to  the  scholar's  mind.  Beyond  its 
general  refining  influence,  music  may  thus  become  an 
agreeable  instrument  for  fixing  plain  truths  of  conduct 
deep  in  the  memory  and  the  heart.  The  songs  should 
not  be  made  exclusively  didactic,  but  after  a  short  talk 
on  truthfulness,  for  instance,  the  moral  could  hardly  be 
left  on  the  mind  more  felicitously  than  with  singing, 
"Be  the  matter  what  it  may,  Always  tell  the  truth !  " 

In  this  attempt  to  set  forth  the  laws  of  the  good  life 
—  which  is  therefore  the  best,  the  happiest,  the  most 
truly  successful  life  —  in  such  a  manner  as  to  aid  the 
great  cause  of  the  education  of  the  young,  I  have  used 
material  from  many  quarters.  A  careful  inquiry  has 
not  brought  to  notice  any  book,  however,  in  English, 
French,  or  German  constructed  on  the  lines  here  fol- 
lowed.    Books  of  ethical  philosophy  are  many  in  these 


MORALS  IN   TUB  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  19 

languages ;  but  handbooks  of  practical  morals  for  schools 
are  comparatively  very  few.  But  wherever  I  have  found 
anything  to  my  purpose  I  have  appropriated  it.  A  book 
of  this  kind,  as  a  German  author  has  well  said,  should 
be  a  collective  work  to  which  many  minds  have  contrib- 
uted ;  he  would  be  pleased  to  have  his  own  volume 
quoted  as  written  "  by  the  professors  and  schoolmasters 
of  Germany."  So,  in  offering  this  small  book  to  the  pub- 
lic-school teachers  of  my  country,  to  make  of  it  what 
use  they  may,  I  am  careless  of  originality  or  plagiarism, 
but  I  earnestly  invite  such  suggestions  for  its  improve- 
ment as  shall  make  it  in  the  truest  sense  "  a  book  by 
the  teachers  of  America." 


NOTES. 


Moral  education  in  the  public  schools  is  one  of  the  "  ques- 
tions of  the  day  "  most  frequently  debated  in  the  press.  The 
Christian  Union  and  the  Independent  of  New  York,  Public  Opin- 
ion of  Washington,  and  the  Christian  Register  of  Boston,  have 
had  of  recent  years  many  noteworthy  expressions  of  opinion 
from  prominent  educators  on  the  subject.  ^  Cardinal  Gibbons  has 
ably  stated  the  argument  against  secular  schools.  Particularly 
good  is  a  little  pamphlet  by  W.  T.  Harris,  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Education,  entitled  Morality  in  the  Schools:  it 
is  a  review  of  the  discussion  printed  in  the  Christian  Register, 
January  31,  1889.  Mistaken  methods  of  teaching  morals  with- 
out religion,  are  described,  and  a  better  way  indicated,  in  a  pa- 
per on  Ethics  in  the  Sunday  School,  by  W.  L.  Sheldon  of  St. 
Louis.  See  also  Problems  in  American  Society,  by  J.  H.  Crooker. 
Among  articles  in  the  periodicals  are  Religion  in  State  Educa- 
tion, by  J.  H.  Seelye,  Forum,  i.  427;  Training  in  Ethical  Science, 
by  H.  H.  Curtis,  Popular  Science  Monthly,  xxvii.  96;  Moral  and 
Industrial  Training,  by  G.  R.  Stetson,  Andover  Review,  vi.  Sol; 
Religion,  Morals,  and  Schools,  by  M.  J.  Savage,  The  Arena,  i. 
503. 

The  Ethical  Record  of  Philadelphia  and  its  successor,  The  In- 
ternational Journal  of  Ethics,   have  frequently  considered   the 


20  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

place  of  morals  in  education,  and  the  best  methods  of  instruc- 
tion. Some  of  Professor  Felix  Adier's  valuable  lectures  on  moral 
training  have  been  printed  in  pamphlet  form. 

In  the  multitude  of  works  on  pedagogy,  which  have  more  or 
less  to  say  on  the  moral  nature,  and  the  wisest  ways  of  develop- 
ing it,  these  books  may  be  named  as  among  the  best:  Plato's 
Republic,  books  iii.  and  iv. ;  Richter's  Levana;  Herbert  Spencer's 
Education ;  A.  Bain's  Education  as  a  Science;  Rosenkranz's  Phi- 
losophy of  Education,  part  II.  chapters  xii.-xviii. ;  G.  Compayr^'s 
Lectures  on  Teaching,  part  I.  chapters  ix.-xii. ;  and  Psychology; 
other  works  on  psychology  by  J.  M.  Baldwin,  J.  Dewey,  D.  J. 
Hill,  and  James  Sully  ;  The  Senses  and  the  Will,  by  W.  Preyer; 
T'he  Education  of  Man,  by  Froebel.  Hints  on  Home  Teaching,  by 
Edwin  Abbot,  D.  D. ;  School  Life,  a  series  of  lessons,  by  Mrs. 
F.  B.  Ames;  and  Notes  of  Lessons  on  Moral  Subjects,  by  F.  Hack- 
wood  (T.  Nelson  &  Sons),  are  particularly  helpful. 

A  point  not  to  be  overlooked  by  the  teacher  is  the  use  of  pro- 
verbs ("the  wisdom  of  many  in  the  wit  of  one"),  which  will 
often  be  effective  in  fixing  a  moral  truth  in  the  child's  mind. 
Such  a  book  as  Bartlett's  Familiar  Quotations  will  supply  brief 
passages  of  higher  literary  merit,  bearing  on  points  of  common 
conduct.  The  reading  exercises,  especially  the  supplementary 
reading,  may  well  be  chosen  with  an  ethical  aim.  While  the 
school-room  itself  supplies  the  natural  basis  for  instruction  in 
morals,  by  precept  and  by  example,  much  moralizing  on  every 
little  incident  should  be  avoided.  The  chief  aim  of  the  school, 
after  all  is  said,  is  to  get  knowledge. 

The  biographies  of  Arnold  of  Rugby,  and  other  great  educa- 
tional reformers  (see  R.  H.  Quick's  work  with  this  title)  will  be 
useful.  Every  teacher  has,  in  a  sense,  to  be  a  re-former  of  char- 
acter, and  Coleridge's  lines  (page  iv.)  indicate  finely  the  chief 
virtues  such  a  reformer  must  himself  possess. 


THE  LAWS   OF  DAILY   CONDUCT. 


CHAPTER  I. 
LIFE  UNDER  LAW. 


1.  All  our  human  life  is  lived  under  Law.      At 

the  outset  let  us  be  clear  iu  our  minds  as  to  just  what 
we  mean  by  this  comprehensive  statement.  We  are 
well  aware  that  in  all  free,  civilized  countries,  such  as 
our  own,  there  is  something  called  "  the  fundamental 
law,"  or  "  the  Constitution  "  of  the  country.  Thus  the 
United  States  Constitution  is  for  all  the  States.  More- 
over, whether  we  live  in  Massachusetts,  Ohio,  Califor- 
nia, Louisiana,  or  any  other  State  of  the  Union,  we 
live  under  a  State  Constitution,  too,  which  is  in  har- 
mony with  the  "  fundamental  law  "  of  the  whole  coun- 
try. Congress  and  the  State  legislatures  pass  laws  to 
adapt  the  provisions  of  the  Constitutions  to  the  circum- 
stances and  needs  of  our  own  time.  Many  large  vol- 
umes contain  these  laws,  which  do  not  promise  to  re- 
ward any  one  for  doing  well,  but  declare  punishments 
for  persons  who  do  not  act  in  conformity  with  what 
they  prescribe.  Policemen,  constables,  or  sheriffs  ar- 
rest men  or  women  who  are  supposed  to  be  "  breaking 
the  law "  of  the  town  or  city  or  State  or  Nation,  and 
they  are  confined  in  jails  or  prisons  or  kept  on  bail, 
until  they  are  tried  and  found  to  be  innocent  or  guilty 
by  the  courts.  Judges  are  appointed  to  preside  over 
these   courts,   at   the   public   expense,   and   juries   are 


22  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

chosen  to  decide  whether  the  accvised  person  has  actu- 
ally broken  the  law  or  not.  There  is  a  special  class  of 
persons,  lawyers,  who  devote  themselves  to  studying 
and  practising  law ;  they  go  into  court  and  argue  in 
behalf  of  one  side  or  the  other  in  a  suit. 

Now,  when  we  say  that  the  jury  has  convicted  a  per- 
son (found  him  guilty)  of  breaking  the  law,  what  do 
we  mean  ?  We  do  not  intend  to  say  that  the  law  is 
something  which  can  be  broken  as  a  pane  of  glass  is 
broken  by  throwing  a  stone  through  it.  We  get  a  new 
pane  of  glass  set  in  such  a  case,  because  the  old  one  is 
no  longer  good  for  our  purpose,  to  keep  out  the  wind 
and  the  rain.  But  when  a  man  breaks  the  law  against 
taking  human  life  by  committing  a  murder,  we  do  not 
have  to  pass  a  new  law.  The  law  which  the  murderer 
disobeys  is  the  expression  in  words  of  the  will  and  pur- 
pose of  the  people  of  this  State  that  no  person  shall 
take  the  life  of  another  at  his  own  pleasure  merely.  If 
one  man  kills  another,  not  in  self-defence,  he  is  a  law- 
breaker in  this  sense,  that  he  disobeys  the  expres- 
sion of  the  will  of  the  people.  By  the  methods  they 
have  established  for  such  cases,  they  proceed  to  enforce 
the  law  against  him,  i.-e.,  to  put  it  into  effect  by  mak- 
ing him  suffer  certain  consequences  of  his  bad  deed  as 
a  penalty. 

This  punishment  was  laid  down  in  the  law  before 
the  murder  was  committed,  and  it  was  intended  to  be 
so  severe  as  to  prevent  any  person  from  killing  a  hu- 
man being.  But  if,  for  any  reason,  a  man  or  woman 
has  actually  been  killed  by  another,  then  we  say,  "  The 
law  must  be  enforced ;  and  the  murderer  must  lose  his 
life,"  because  this  is  the  punishment  laid  down  in  the 
law  on  purpose  to  keep  people's  lives  safe  generally. 
If  the  murderer  is  hanged  (or  imprisoned  for  life,  in- 
stead, under  certain  circumstances)  then  the  law  against 
murder  has  been  "  enforced,"  and  we  might  well  say  that 
the  law  has  broken  the  murderer.     He  acted  contrary 


LIFE   UNDER  LAW.  23 

to  the  law ;  but  lu;  was  afterwards  punished  according 
to  the  law.  lie;  disobeyed ;  but  lu;  had  to  take  tht;  con- 
sequences which  tlie  law  threatened  against  disobedi- 
ence. So  Avitli  respect  to  offences  of.  less  importance 
than  the  taking  of  a  human  life  :  if  a  man  breaks  into 
another  man's  house  at  night  and  carries  away  some  of 
that  man's  property,  or  if  he  steals  something  out  of  a 
dry-goods  store  in  broad  daylight,  he  is  sent  to  jail,  if 
it  is  proved  that  he  did  the  act,  and  he  is  kept  in  prison 
as  long  as  the  law  has  determined  for  such  cases. 

This,  then,  is  what  we  mean  by  "  breaking "  and 
"  enforcing "  the  statute  laAV  of  the  Commonwealth  in 
which  we  live.  The  great  majority  of  the  people  living 
in  the  State  believe  that  their  lives  and  their  property 
will  not  be  safe  unless  laws  prescribing  punishments 
for  certain  bad  actions  are  passed  and  enforced.  So 
they  choose  legislators  who  make  these  laws,  and  pay 
judges  and  jailers  to  carry  them  out  whenever  any  evil- 
minded  person  disobeys  them.  In  all  civilized  coun- 
tries human  beings  live  under  law  in  this  sense,  and  we 
say  that  "  a  government  of  laAvs,  not  of  men  "  is  right, 
meaning  that  the  same  rule  should  be  applied  to  all 
alike  who  commit  a  crime,  and  that  no  man  should 
have  the  power  to  suspend  or  set  aside  the  law  so  that 
a  guilty  ]3erson  may  escape  the  punishment  he  has  de- 
served. 

But  this  is  only  one  meaning  of  "  living  under  law." 
The  laws  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  were  made 
by  men,  and  they  are  changed  from  time  to  time,  as 
men's  ideas  alter.  But  when  we  say  "a  law  of  na- 
ture," we  are  using  the  word  law  to  mean  something 
very  different,  something  which  men  did  not  make 
and  cannot  alter.  It  is  a  law  of  nature,  for  instance, 
that  the  tides  shall  rise  and  fall  twice  in  every  twenty- 
four  hours  :  it  is  a  law  of  nature  that  the  roots  of  an 
apple-tree  shall  spread  out  in  the  ground  and  that  it 
shall  leaf  and  blossom  and  bear  fruit  in  the  upper  air 


24  TUE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

and  sunshine.  It  is  a  law  of  nature  that  water  shall  run 
down  hill,  not  up  hill.  We  should  only  make  ourselves 
ridiculous  if  we  passed  laws  in  our  legislatures  that  the 
tide  should  go  out  and  come  in  only  once  in  the  twenty- 
four  hours  ;  that  apples  should  grow  in  the  ground  like 
potatoes,  and  that  rivers  should  run  over  hills  instead 
of  going  around  them.  No  law  of  nature  can  be  set 
aside  by  laws  that  man  makes.  We  may  often  be  mis- 
taken as  to  what  the  actual  laws  of  nature  are  :  we  have 
to  discover  them  by  experience,  and  reasoning  on  our 
experience,  of  the  facts  of  nature.  But  when  we  have 
once  found  a  real  law  like  that  of  gravitation,  the 
widest-reaching  of  all  laws  of  nature,  we  should  never 
think  that  we  can  make  it  of  no  effect  by  saying  so,  or 
voting  so. 

A  "  law  of  nature  "  is  our  expression  of  the  fact  that 
natural  forces  act  in  certain  ways.  The  uniformity 
of  nature  means  that  we  find  in  all  our  experience 
that  these  ways  do  not  change  without  a  cause.  Under 
the  same  conditions  the  natural  forces  —  gravitation, 
heat,  light,  and  electricity,  for  instance  —  always  act 
in  the  same  manner  and  produce  the  same  effects.  Just 
as  we  live  together  in  towns  and  cities  and  states,  feel- 
ing safe  as  to  our  persons  and  property  so  far  as  other 
persons  are  concerned,  because  of  the  human  laws  that 
have  been  made  to  protect  us  against  attack  by  evil- 
doers, so  we  have  a  very  much  greater  confidence  in  the 
laws  of  nature  which  man  did  not  make  and  cannot 
alter.  We  feel  perfectly  sure  that  the  force  of  gravita- 
tion will  hold  our  houses  down  to  the  ground  next  year 
as  well  as  this  year  ;  so  we  build  them  to  last  for  years, 
and  we  live  in  them  in  entire  security.  We  are  very  con- 
fident that  day  will  succeed  night  every  evening  that  we 
lie  down  to  sleep :  we  have  no  fear  that  harvest  will  not 
follow  upon  seed-time.  Gravitation,  and  the  revolution 
of  the  earth  on  its  axis,  and  the  growth  of  plants  from 
seeds  are  all  parts  of  the  great  uniformity  of  nature. 


LIFE  UNDER  LAW.  25 

With  respect  to  these  laws  of  nature,  we  may  say  even 
more  strongly  t}ian  we  could  say  it  of  the  wisest  laws 
of  man's  making,  "  They  cannot  be  broken  :  the?j  break 
the  persons  who  disobey  them."  If  a  little  child  puts  its 
hand  on  a  hot  stove,  its  hand  will  be  burned :  if  a  boy 
who  cannot  swim  goes  alone  into  deep  water,  out  of  the 
reach  of  help,  he  will  be  drowned.  It  is  the  nature  of 
fire  and  hot  things  to  burn  human  flesh :  it  is  the  na- 
ture of  water  to  cause  the  death  of  a  person  who  gets 
under  it  so  that  he  cannot  keep  on  breathing.  The 
judges  and  the  juries  sometimes  let  a  person  go  free  of 
punishment  if  he  makes  it  seem  probable  that  he  did 
not  intend  to  break  the  law  printed  in  the  statute-book ; 
or  they  impose  a  lighter  punishment  than  they  would 
in  a  case  where  they  were  sure  that  the  person  diso- 
beyed the  law  knowingly.  But  what  we  call  the  '^  laws 
of  nature  "  were  not  made  by  human  beings ;  so  we  can- 
not ask  our  fellow-men  to  change  them  or  alter  the  pen- 
alties because  we  did  not  know  all  about  them  or  intend 
to  violate  them.  The  man  who  handles  a  wire  charged 
with  electricity  will  receive  a  shock  just  the  same, 
whether  he  knew  anything  about  the  risk  or  did  not. 
It  is  our  business  to  learn  the  laws  of  nature  and  to  act 
in  accordance  with  them. 

These  laws  are  very  many  in  number,  and  we  are 
constantly  learning  more  and  more  about  them  :  the 
more  we  learn,  the  more  sure  we  become  of  the  uni- 
formity of  nature.  This  truth  i3  the  foundation  of 
science  and  the  reason  for  our  daily  confidence  in  the 
future.  If  we  believe  that  hereafter  the  same  causes 
will  produce  the  same  effects  as  now,  under  the  same 
conditions,  we  can  plan  our  lives  with  a  firm  trust  that 
we  are  building  on  a  sure  foundation.  This  is  the  rea- 
son why  we  are  continually  inquiring  into  nature  and 
its  laws  ;  we  study  physics  and  chemistry  and  botany 
and  physiology,  and  all  the  other  "  natural  sciences,"  as 
we  call  them,  in  order  first  to  know,  and  then  to  act  in 


26  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

accordance  with  our  knowledge.  We  study  the  facts  of 
natural  things  and  forces  in  order  to  find  the  laws  of 
their  existence  and  their  operation  and  in  order  to  make 
our  own  actions  conform  to  the  nature  of  things. 
We  wish  to  make  use  of  the  forces  of  nature,  such  as 
heat  and  electricity,  that  they  may  serve  our  conve- 
nience. After  we  have  found  how  these  forces  act,  Avhat 
the  laws  of  them  are,  we  have  no  choice  about  obeying 
or  disobeying,  and  taking  the  consequences  or  not.  We 
must  take  the  consequences,  if  we  act  in  one  way 
or  another,  which  "  naturally  "  follow  from  that  action. 
A  statement  of  all  the  "  laws  "  of  any  thing  in  nature 
would  be  a  complete  expression  in  words  of  the  nature 
of  that  thing :  so  every  thing  or  being  is  acting  in 
accordance  with  law  when  it  is  acting  according  to  its 
nature.  We  cannot  reasonably  expect  that  things  will 
act  contrary  to  their  nature.  We  never  find  rocks,  for 
example,  putting  out  woody  fibres  and  rooting  them- 
selves in  the  soil.  We  do  not  expect  ever  to  see  oak 
trees  walking  up  and  down  the  street,  or  animals  stand- 
ing on  their  heads  to  eat  their  food. 

Every  law  of  nature  has  an  interest  and  a  value  for 
mankind,  if  purely  as  a  matter  of  knowledge.  But 
among  all  the  sciences,  the  most  interesting  to  man  and 
woman  are  those  which  declare  the  facts  and  laws  of 
our  own  human  nature.  We  are  living  beings,  and  so  we 
must  act  according  to  the  laws  of  life  ;  biology  is  the 
name  we  give  to  the  science  that  tells  us  of  the  facts 
and  laws  of  life  in  general,  whether  in  plants  or  in  ani- 
mals. We  are  animals,  and  we  call  by  the  name  of 
physiology  the  science  that  informs  us  about  the  facts 
and  laws  of  animal  life,  whether  in  dogs  or  horses,  or 
any  other  of  the  "  lower  animals,"  or  in  mankind. 

As  we  study  this  animal  life  we  find,  as  we  get  nearer 
and  nearer  in  the  scale  to  human  beings,  that  there  is 
more  and  more  of  that  wonderful  life  which  we  call  the 
life  of  mind.    So  we  have  a  science  of  mental  physiology 


LIFE  UNDER  LAW.  27 

which  is  mainly  made  up  of  what  men  liave  found  out 
about  the  organs  and  functions  (jf  the  human  mind  — 
the  brain  and  nerves  which  we  can  see,  and  the  feeling 
and  thinking  and  willing  which  we  are  conscious  of  in 
ourselves,  but  which  no  one  can  see.  We  can  only 
infer  that  others  are  feeling  or  thinking  or  willing  by 
the  signs  which  they  make,  in  expression  or  speech  or 
action. 

The  fact  that  men  are  especially  thinking  animals 
with  minds,  is  the  reason  why  we  have  many  other  sci- 
ences than  mental  physiology,  which  has  to  do  only  with 
those  organs  of  the  mind  which  it  is  possible  to  see 
in  a  human  being,  the  brain  and  the  nervous  system. 
Psychology  is  the  name  we  give  ("  knowledge  of  the  mind 
or  soul ")  to  the  science  of  the  human  mind  in  general. 
But  this  is  a  very  great  subject  in  itself  :  so  we  divide 
it  into  branches,  and  give  each  one  of  these  a  name. 
There  is  the  science  of  logic,  for  example,  which  brings 
together  the  facts  about  the  ways  in  which  men  reason  ; 
the  science  of  economics,  which  relates  how  they  get 
wealth,  and  consume  or  distribute  it ;  the  science  of 
politics,  which  expounds  the  methods  in  which  men  have 
come  together  under  various  forms  of  government ;  and 
the  science  of  history,  which  shows  us  what  mankind 
has  done  in  all  ages  and  countries  where  any  record 
has  been  preserved  of  its  doings. 

All  these  mental  sciences  show  certain  facts  of  our 
nature  as  human  beings,  and  sift  them  so  as  to  discover 
their  laws.  AVhen  these  laws  are  once  actually  found, 
we  have  no  choice  about  obeying  them  and  suffering  a 
penalty  or  not.  We  must  obey  them  if  we  would  pros- 
X)er  mentally.  So  doing,  we  live  in  accordance  with  our 
nature  as  intellectual  beings  :  but  if  we  disobey  these 
laws,  as  to  a  limited  extent  we  may  and  can,  we  must 
take  the  natural  consequences.  If,  for  instance,  we  rea- 
son contrary  to  the  laws  of  logic,  which  are  simply  state- 
ments of  the  way  in  which  we  must  reason  to  arrive  at 


28  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

correct  conclusious,  we  come  to  a  wrong  result.  We 
cannot  reason  or  fail  to  reason,  just  as  we  please,  and 
still  have  a  right  to  demand  that  we  arrive  at  the  truth 
in  both  cases  alike.  We  cannot  act  contrary  to  the  ways 
in  which  the  science  of  economics  shows  that  men  ac- 
quire property,  and  then  rationally  complain  that  we 
are  not  well-off  as  to  property.  There  are  laws  of  logic 
and  laws  of  economics  which  are  just  as  sure  and  just 
as  binding  as  the  laws  of  physics  or  chemistry.  They 
are,  indeed,  often  harder  to  discover,  as  human  nature 
is  very  complex,  and  we  are  subject  to  so  many  laws 
that  we  are  more  apt  to  make  mistakes  about  them  than 
about  rocks  and  plants  and  the  lower  animals.  But 
whetlier  we  know  the  law  or  do  not  know  it,  it  is  still 
in  force.  The  one  wise  course  for  us  to  follow  is  to  dis- 
cover the  law,  if  possible,  and  then  conform  our  action 
to  it.  This  is  not  a  world  iu  which  we  can  "  do  as  we 
please,"  and  prosper.  On  the  contrary,  as  a  very  wise 
man  has  said,  "  Only  law  can  give  us  freedom ; "  we 
must  obey  the  laws  of  our  own  human  nature  and  of  all 
nature,  if  we  would  have  true  liberty  and  happiness. 

Most  of  all  is  what  we  have  been  saying  true  of  the 
science  of  ethics  or  morals  (the  two  words  mean  the 
same  thing,  one  being  derived  from  the  Greek,  the 
other  from  the  Latin  language).  Ethics  is  the  sci- 
ence of  human  conduct  in  personal  relations.  It 
tells  us  of  the  facts  of  human  life  which  concern  human 
beings,  not  in  respect  to  reasoning  (logic)  for  example, 
not  in  respect  to  the  way  to  make  and  spend  money 
(economics),  not  in  respect  to  setting  up  a  government 
that  will  last  (politics),  but  in  respect  to  the  common 
conduct  of  men  toward  each  other  in  the  relations  of 
character.  Ethics,  or  morals,  is  a  more  difficult  science 
to  define  than  the  others  which  we  have  been  naming, 
so  easy  is  it  for  almost  any  human  action  to  take  on  a 
moral  bearing,  i  e.,  to  affect  the  welfare  of  other  per- 
sons than  the  doer  of  the  act,  or  to  influence  his  own 


LIFE   UNDER  LAW.  29 

ethical  life.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  vast  majority 
of  acts  and  words  and  feelings  which  may  be  called 
moral  ov  immoral  are  of  the  commonest,  and  are  con- 
stantly happening  every  day. 

We  live  in  society :  not  one  of  us  can  live  entirely 
apart,  as  an  isolated  individual.  Human  society  is  just 
as  much  a  fact  as  any  single  person  is  a  fact.  Men, 
we  say,  are  social  beings.  Their  nature  marks  them 
out  as  intended  to  live  together,  members  of  a  family, 
of  a  neighborhood,  of  a  town,  of  a  nation,  and  of  the 
great  world  of  human  beings.  Ethics  is  not,  of  course, 
the  only  science  of  human  action  in  society,  for  men 
in  order  to  carry  on  trade  or  establish  a  government, 
for  instance,  must  be  living  in  communities,  and  so 
economics  and  politics  are  social  sciences  too ;  but  eth- 
ics is  preeminently  the  most  fundamental  and  impor- 
tant science  of  human  life  together.  The  art  of 
morals  is  by  far  the  most  interesting  and  constant  of 
all  arts  to  universal  mankind.  We  are  all  the  time  liv- 
ing in  social  relations ;  society  of  some  kind  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  human  welfare.  The  science  and  the 
art  which  are  concerned  with  the  personal  relations  of 
the  members  of  society  to  each  other  must  thus  be  of 
supreme  interest.  No  questions  are  more  common  than 
questions  of  moral  goodness  or  badness  ;  no  words  are 
more  often  employed  than  "  right "  and  "  wrong ;  " 
nothing  is  more  thought  of  than  the  personal  relations 
into  which  moral  qualities  may  at  any  time  enter ; 
nothing  is  of  more  consequence  to  the  very  existence  of 
human  society  than  virtue,  or  the  moral  life. 

It  would  be  a  very  strange  exception  to»  all  the  rest 
of  our  life  if  these  personal  relations  were  not  subject 
to  law  like  other  relations.  Moral  law,  in  the  family, 
in  the  neighborhood,  in  the  political  organizations  of 
men,  is,  in  fact,  the  earliest  of  all  laws  to  force  itself 
upon  the  attention  of  men.  Unless  the  social  law  is  in 
large  degree  obeyed,  the  family  would  not  endure,  the 


30  TUE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

State  would  perisli,  men  would  fly  apart  from  one 
another  and  live  in  solitude,  and  civilization  would  thus 
become  impossible.  So  important  to  the  very  existence 
of  social  life  is  the  moral  life,  that  we  find  the  earliest 
codes  of  law  were  largely  collections  of  moral  precepts. 
At  once,  on  reflection,  we  see  how  reasonable  this  is. 
The  moral  law  is  the  law  which  expresses  the  nature  of 
society ;  just  as  the  single  human  being  must  obey  the 
laws  of  his  own  nature  to  some  degree,  even  to  live,  so 
a  society,  a  larger  or  smaller  collection  of  human  beings 
must  obey  the  moral  law,  however  imperfectly,  in  order 
even  to  exist.  It  may  have  been  a  very  long  time  before 
books  were  written  on  moral  science,  but  troni  the  ear- 
liest days  of  human  life  on  this  earth  there  must  have 
been  some  practical  recognition  of  the  moral  law,  for 
otherwise  human  society  would  have  been  impossible. 
To  put  this  truth  in  another  form,  we  might  say  that 
human  nature  has  alw^ays  been  true  to  itself  and  that 
man  has  always  acted  out  his  own  nature. 

Since  we  can  reason  about  an  art  and  imagine  it  car- 
ried to  a  perfection  which  only  few  persons,  if  any, 
have  ever  attained,  we  may  conceive  a  perfect  morality, 
according  to  certain  principles,  which  few  individuals 
have  practised  thoroughly  at  any  time.  There  is  an 
ideal  excellence  which  may  be  imagined  in  every 
direction  of  human  effort.  aS"o  where  else,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  has  the  ideal  been  earlier  conceived  or  more 
constantly  held  up  to  mankind  than  in  this  very  sphere 
of  conduct,  however  rarely  it  has  been  realized.  But 
as  the  moral  law  is  the  very  law  of  life  of  human  so- 
ciety, it  has  always  been  recognized  and  obeyed  in  some 
degree. 

Mankind  makes  progress  in  morality,  as  in  other 
arts  of  life,  by  taking  heed  to  its  ways.  So  strong  is  the 
force,  however,  in  most  human  beings  that  makes  them 
think  too  much  of  individual  happiness  and  too  little  of 
the  social  welfare,  that  moral  progress  toward  the  higher 


LIFE   UNDER  LAW.  31 

levels  of  conduct  is  necessarily  slow.  But  we  are  able 
to-day  to  see  at  least  that  the  moral  law  is  inscribed  in 
the  nature  of  man,  that  its  facts  are  a  part  of  the  facts 
of  human  nature,  aiid  that  obedience  to  it  is  in  the  line 
of  the  true  development  of  human  nature.  We  live 
under  moral  law  as  we  live  under  physical  law,  under 
chemical  law,  under  physiological  law.  We  cannot 
escape  from  it,  except  by  leaving  human  society,  for  it 
is  of  the  very  nature  of  that  society.  We  find  our  wel- 
fare in  obedience  to  it ;  we  suffer  if  we  disobey  it, 
knowingly  or  unknowingly.  Owing  to  the  complexity 
of  many  social  relations  we  cannot  be  so  exact  in  pre- 
dicting the  consequences  of  immorality  as  of  disobe- 
dience to  the  laws  of  health,  but  we  may  be  just  as  con- 
fident, despite  all  apparent  exceptions,  that  there  is  a 
moral  law  and  that  it  is  binding  on  all  human  beings, 
as  we  are  that  there  are  laws  for  the  body,  which  must 
be  observed  if  one  Avould  have  good  health.  The  first 
thing  for  a  rational  human  being  here  to  do  is  to 
acknowledge  that  he  lives  in  every  time,  place,  and 
condition,  under  law,  and,  most  of  all,  under  the 
moral  law  of  universal  human  nature,  to  which  he 
owes  obedience.  What  this  obedience  implies  we  will 
consider  in  the  next  chapter. 


NOTES. 


The  teacher  will  do  well  to  dwell  upon  the  great  conceptions 
of  modern  thought,  the  universe  governed  by  one  law,  tlie  uni- 
formity of  nature,  and  the  inclusion  of  human  life  under  law. 
He  will  be  aided  himself  by  such  books  as  J.  S.  Mill's  Logic,  The 
Principles  of  Science,  by  W.  S.  Jevons,  John  Fiske's  Cosmic  Phi- 
losophy, and  The  Reign  of  Law,  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  The 
popular  writings  of  Spencer,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  and  M.  J.  Savage, 
are  full  of  illustrations  of  scientific  conceptions.  The  following 
quotation  from  Professor  Huxley's  Science  Primer:  Introductory, 


32  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

explains  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  "  a  law  of  nature."  (The 
sight  of  the  Statutes  of  the  State  would  impress  the  child's  mind 
forcibly.) 

"  When  we  have  made  out,  by  careful  and  repeated  observa- 
tion, that  something  is  always  the  cause  of  a  certain  effect,  or 
that  certain  events  always  take  place  in  the  same  order,  we  speak 
of  the  truth  thus  discovered  as  a  law  of  nature.  ...  In  fact, 
everything  that  we  know  about  the  powers  and  properties  of 
natural  objects,  and  about  the  order  of  nature,  may  properly  be 
termed  a  law  of  nature.  ...  A  law  of  man  tells  what  we  may 
expect  society  will  do  under  certain  circumstances,  and  a  law  of 
nature  tells  us  what  we  may  expect  natural  objects  will  do  under 
certain  circumstances.  .  •  .  Natural  laws  are  not  commands,  but 
assertions  respecting  the  invariable  order  of  nature;  and  they 
remain  laws  only  so  long  as  they  can  be  shown  to  express  that 
order.  To  speak  of  the  violation  or  the  suspension  of  a  law  of 
nature  is  an  absurdity.  All  that  the  phrase  can  really  mean  is, 
that  under  certain  circumstances  the  assertion  contained  in  the 
law  is  not  true;  and  the  just  conclusion  is,  not  that  the  order  of 
nature  is  interrupted,  but  that  we  have  made  a  mistake  in  stat- 
ing that  order.  A  true  natural  law  is  a  imiversal  rule,  and  as 
such  admits  of  no  exception." 

So  Montesquieu  wrote:  "Laws,  in  their  most  general  signifi- 
cation, are  the  necessary  relations  arising  from  the  nature  of 
things.     In  this  sense  all  beings  have  their  laws." 

Here  are  three  famous  sayings  by  lawyers  on  man-made 
law:  — 

"Reason  is  the  life  of  law;  nay,  the  common  law  itself  is  no- 
thing else  but  reason.  .  .  .  The  law,  which  is  perfection  of  rea- 
son."    (Sir  E.  Coke.) 

"  The  absolute  justice  of  the  State,  enlightened  by  the  perfect 
reason  of  the  State.     That  is  law."     (Rufus  Choate.) 

"  There  is  a  higher  law  than  the  Constitution."  (W.  H.  Sew- 
ard.) 

Three  other  great  minds  have  thus  spoken  of  the  relations  of 
law  and  liberty:  — 

"  That  liberty  which  alone  is  the  fruit  of  piety,  of  temperance, 
and  unadulterated  virtue."     (Milton.) 

"  Liberty  must  be  limited  in  order  to,  be  possessed."  (Burke.) 

"  Liberty  exists  in  proportion  to  wholesome  restraint."  (Dan- 
iel Webster.) 


LIFE   UNDER  LAW.  33 

As  a  popular  exposition  of  the  law  of  the  land  under  which 
we  live,  E.  P.  Dole's  Talks  About  Law  is  an  excellent  manual. 
The  idea  of  justice  is  intimately  connected  with  the  political  life 
of  mankind,  and  the  teacher  will  naturally  be  led  into  the  study 
of  politics  as  a  science.  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth,  Wood- 
row  Wilson's  2'he  State  and  Federal  Governments  of  the  United 
States,  and  John  Fiske's  American  Political  Ideas,  are  three  good 
books  to  start  with  ;  see  the  notes  to  Chapter  XII.  of  this  vol- 
ume. 

"  Whenever  a  separation  is  made  between  liberty  and  justice, 
neither  is,  in  my  opinion,  safe."  —  Edmund  Burke. 


CHAPTER  II. 
OBEDIENCE  TO  MORAL  LAW. 

How  do  we  obey  what  we  call  a  physical  or  natu- 
ral law,  and  what  does  such  obedience  mean  ?  To 
answer  these  two  questions,  let  us  take  some  very  plain 
and  specific  instances.  JVIankind  has  discovered,  as  the 
most  universal  of  all  laws  of  physical  nature,  the  law 
of  gravitation.  This  law  finds  expression  in  the  facts 
of  weight  and  of  falling  bodies.  Like  every  other  law 
of  general  nature,  this  is  fixed  and  determined.  We 
cannot  abolish  it  either  by  our  private  will,  or  by  a 
majority  vote  of  all  the  people  on  earth.  It  is  the  force 
of  gravitation,  indeed,  which  keeps  our  bodies  on  the 
earth !  When  we  are  to  build  a  large  house  we  act  in 
accordance  with  our  knowledge  of  gravitation  by  dig- 
ging deep  into  the  ground  first,  and  then  laying  the 
strongest  part  of  the  building  below  the  surface,  as  a 
foundation  for  the  rest.  We  do  not  think  because  we 
have  but  a  short  time  for  building,  or  because  we  have 
but  little  money  to  build  with,  or  simply  because  "we 
happen  to  feel  like  it,"  that  it  will  be  well  enough  to  go 
on  fast  with  the  work,  and  run  up  a  high  building  with- 
out digging  deep  to  lay  a  strong  and  heavy  foundation 
wall.  The  power  of  gravitation  would  bring  the  house 
to  the  ground  of  its  own  weight  if  we  did  so  ;  and  men 
would  call  us,  as  we  should  deserve  to  be  called, 
"  fools." 

We  cannot  know  just  how  much  weight  to  place  on  a 
certain  foundation  unless  we  have  studied  the  matter  in 
books,  or  have  had  much  practical  experience  ;  but,  if 
we  are  wise,  we  consult  those  who  do  know,  and  build 


OBEDIENCE  TO  MORAL  LAW.  35 

accordingly.  We  should  be  very  foolish,  indeed,  if  we 
had  such  an  idea  of  our  own  importance  as  to  think 
that  the  natural  force  would  be  modified,  or  fail  to  act 
as  it  usually  does,  because  it  is  we  who  have  built  the 
house,  however  unwisely.  "  Shall  gravitation  cease  if 
you  go  by  ?  "  writes  the  poet.  No  !  it  will  not  cease  ; 
and  your  bad  building  will  fall,  and  perhaps  crush  you 
in  its  falling.  We  obey  this  natural  law  of  gravitation 
by  building  as  experienced  men  tell  us  we  must  build  if 
we  would  be  sure  that  our  house  stand  firm.  We  have 
no  choice  in  the  matter.  Stone  and  wood  and  irOn,  and 
the  earth  on  which  they  rest,  will  act  according  to  the 
laws  of  their  own  natures,  and  they  will  pay  no  atten- 
tion to  our  fond  wishes,  our  caprices,  or  our  ignorance. 
They  are  all  under  universal  law ;  they  are  parts  of  one 
whole,  —  the  universe  of  things,  —  and  they  act  accord- 
ingly, each  in  its  sphere.  We,  too,  must  so  act  wisely, 
with  a  knowledge  of  law  and  according  to  law,  if  we 
would  have  our  houses  stand.  People  cannot  build 
"  just  as  they  please "  and  have  good  houses  that  will 
last.  Success  is  the  result  of  conformity  to  natural  law 
here ;  it  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  house  endures 
and  is  strong.  Failure  and  disaster  are  the  result  of 
neglect  of  natural  law  or  conscious  disobedience,  —  the 
house  falls  fiat. 

In  our  next  example  let  us  come  home  to  ourselves, 
as  human  beings  in  animal  bodies.  Human  physiology 
is  the  name  we  give  to  the  science  which  brings  together 
the  facts  which  men  have  discovered  by  long  and  care- 
ful study  of  the  human  body.  They  have  found  out 
"  the  laws  of  physiology."  These  are  the  expression, 
in  a  few  words  comparatively,  of  the  facts  as  to  the 
ways  in  whicli  the  bodily  forces  work  constantly  in  us. 
In  accordance  with  their  knowledge  of  the  working  of 
muscles  and  nerves  and  stomach  and  brain  and  all  the 
other  bodily  parts  and  organs,  the  doctors  tell  us  that 
we  must  do  so  and  so  if  we  would  preserve  the  bodily 


36  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

health,  which  is  so  indispensable  a  condition  of  human 
happiness  and  prosperity.  They  give  the  name  Hygiene 
to  the  set  of  practical  rules  and  directions  about  eat- 
ing and  drinking,  breathing,  sleeping,  work  and  play, 
and  other  functions,  which  are  founded  on  their  studv 
of  physiology.  If  one  follows  these  rules  he  will  prob- 
ably enjoy  good  health  ;  if  he  does  not  follow  them  he 
is  altogether  likely  to  be  sick  or  infirm.  Of  course,  this 
matter  of  good  health  is  very  much  more  complicated 
than  the  matter  of  building  a  house  so  that  it  will  stand 
firm.  There  are  very  many  more  things  to  be  taken  into 
consideration,  and  there  are,  aj)2yarentl)/,  a  great  many 
exceptions  to  what  we  call  "  the  laws  of  health,"  because 
the  conditions  under  which  people  live  are  so  various. 

But  we  need  not  doubt,  first,  that  there  are  laws  of 
health ;  and  second,  that  we  know  a  good  deal  about 
them,  amply  enough  to  show  us  what  our  bodily  habits, 
as  a  rule,  should  be.  One  law,  for  example,  is  that  our 
lungs  should  have  pure  air  to  breathe,  and  that  they  be- 
come weakened  or  diseased  if  we  breathe  the  same  air 
over  and  over.  Now  a  farmer  who  works  outdoors 
all  the  summer  day  may  sleep  in  a  small  and  poorly- 
ventilated  room,  and  may  not  appear  to  suffer  very 
much  from  bad  air.  He  does  not  suffer  so  much,  at 
any  rate,  as  a  man  would  who  has  to  work  all  day  in  a 
close  factory  or  machine  shop.  This  difference  does 
not  affect  the  fact  that  ^-'^''^'fi  (lir  is  aUvays  best  for  the 
lungs  of  every  one,  or  the  truth  that  because  of  this 
fact  we  should  pay  attention  to  ventilation  in  our 
houses  and  workshops.  The  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta  is 
the  well-known  instance  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  a 
certain  amount  of  pure  air  merely  to  sustain  the  animal 
life.  But  the  laws  of  hygiene  in  regard  to  pure  air  are 
confirmed  in  our  common  experience  when  the  results 
of  inattention  are  less  tragical.  Bad  air  produces  head- 
ache and  languor  and  a  low  tone  of  bodily  spirits.  Such 
effects  as  these  we  cannot  get  rid  of  simply  by  wishing 


OBEDIENCE  TO  MORAL  LAW.  37 

them  away.  We  must  change  our  habits  with  regard 
to  the  ventilation  of  our  houses  and  work-places,  the 
amount  of  exercise  we  take  in  the  open  air,  and  like 
matters.  We  have  no  choice.  Our  personal  inclina- 
tions are  not  important  in  the  case.  We  must  have 
habits  that  are  in  conformity  with  our  knowledge  of  the 
need  of  good,  pure  air ;  otherwise,  we  shall  suffer  for 
our  nonconformity  or  disobedience. 

So  we  might  go  on  to  speak  of  the  rules  of  hygiene 
about  eating  and  drinking,  about  sleep,  and  the  work  of 
hand  or  head.  But  the  principle  is  one  and  the  same 
throughout.  Obedience  to  the  laws  of  hygiene  means 
conforming  our  actions  to  our  knowledge  of  these 
laws,  so  as  to  be  healthy  and,  so  far,  happy.  The  wise 
man  values  health  very  greatly.  He  knows  that  he  did 
not  make  the  rules  of  health  and  that  he  cannot  unmake 
them.  They  are  "  bottom  facts "  of  human  nature, 
which  all  mankind  cannot  destroy.  We  must,  then,  if 
we  wish  to  be  well  and  strong  and  have  a  good  animal 
life,  submit  ourselves  to  the  guidance  of  those  who 
know  the  laws  of  hygiene  and  learn  of  them  how  to  fix 
our  habits. 

We  have  always  to  bear  in  mind  that  we  shall  thus 
attain,  by  acting  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  things, 
all  the  happiness  and  prosperity  which  things  can  give 
us.  Obedience  is  the  highway  to  welfare.  We  do  not 
give  up  our  own  whims  and  follies  and  submit  to  the 
rule  of  facts  and  law  merely  in  order  to  discipline  our- 
selves, without  regard  to  the  result.  Precisely  the  con- 
trary is  true.  The  happy,  prosperous  life  would  be 
impossible  without  conformity  to  the  laws  of  human 
nature  ;  therefore,  the  sooner  we  learn  what  these  laws 
are,  and  obey  thcni  in  our  practice,  the  larger  will  be 
the  measure  of  our  Avelfare.  The  service  of  natural  law 
is  perfect  freedom  ;  it  is  the  highest  liberty  we  can  con- 
ceive. Universal  nature  is  under  the  reign  of  law,  as 
Ulysses  says  in  "  Troilus  and  Cressida"  :  — 


38  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

"  The  heavens  themselves,  the  planets  and  this  centre 
Observe  degree,  priority,  and  place, 
Insisture,  course,  proportion,  season,  form, 
Office  and  custom,  in  all  line  of  order." 

Now  what  do  we  mean  especially  by  moral  law  ? 
When  we  speak  these  two  words  we  imply  that  the 
actions,  the  whole  life,  of  human  beings  in  their  rela- 
tions to  one  another  are  under  latv  ;  that  there  are  rules 
for  social  welfare  and  individual  happiness  which,  as 
men  have  discovered  by  long  experience,  are  entitled  to 
be  called  laws  of  human  conduct,  and  that  these  are 
not  dependent  on  any  person's  caprice  or  whim  or  fancy, 
but  are  the  consequence  of  the  great  facts  of  the  nature 
of  man  living  in  society.  We  are  not  free,  under  the 
reign  of  moral  law,  to  "  do  as  we  please,"  any  more 
than  we  are  free  to  observe  the  law  of  gravitation  in 
house-building  or  the  laws  of  health,  or  not,  just  as  we 
feel  inclined.  We  must  obey,  or  we  shall  suffer  the 
penalty  for  disobedience. 

Til  ere  are  moral  laws  which  have  to  be  observed  in 
the  family,  in  the  school,  in  every  kind  of  association 
of  men  with  other  human  beings,  whether  it  be  common 
social  intercourse,  business  relationship,  or  the  life  of 
the  citizens  of  the  town,  state,  or  nation.  Men  come 
together  to  live  in  families  and  other  larger  groups 
through  a  fundamental  instinct ;  it  is  one  of  the 
strongest  laws  of  their  nature  that  they  should  so  do. 
Every  one  of  these  groups  has  its  conditions  of  life, 
which  must  be  observed  if  it  is  even  to*exist,  and  other 
conditions  also  which  must  be  observed  if  it  is  to  2»'os-' 
per.  Hence  there  is  moral  law  for  the  family,  moral 
law  for  the  neighborhood,  moral  law  for  the  school,  for 
the  state,  for  all  kinds  of  associations.  It  is  of  the 
very  nature  of  all  these  bodies  of  men  that  their  mem- 
bers must  act  in  certain  ways  if  the  associations  are  to 
continue.  In  the  family,  for  example,  the  Aveak  and 
helpless  children  must  for  years  be  cared  for,  and  sup- 


OBEDIENCE  TO  MORAL  LAW.  89 

ported  by  their  parents.  As  children  do  not  of  them- 
selves know  how  to  act  wisely  and  live  happily  for  all 
concerned,  they  have  to  obey  their  parents,  who  Avill 
teach  them  to  act  in  such  ways  as  to  make  life  in  the 
family  what  it  should  be,  —  peaceful,  active,  and  happy. 
Fathers  and  mothers  in  their  place  should  act  according 
to  the  laws  of  the  moral  life  of  the  family,  by  support- 
ing and  training  and  loving  their  children.  Children 
have  their  part  to  do  in  returning  their  parents'  love 
and  rendering  a  cheerful  obedience  to  their  wishes.  As 
boys  and  girls  grow  up  they  will  understand  better 
and  better  the  reasons  why  they  are  obliged  to  do  thus 
and  so.  But,  whether  they  understand  it  or  not,  they 
must  obey  the  moral  law  as  it  comes  to  them  from 
the  lips  of  their  parents.  The  bond  that  holds  the 
family  together  is  this  very  power  of  the  father  and 
mother  to  make  their  children  "  mind,"  by  force,  if 
need  be. 

We  say  the  word  ''  ought  "  very  frequently  :  it  means 
"  owe,"  and  Avhenever  we  use  it  we  imply  that  the  per- 
son of  whom  we  speak  has  a  debt  to  pay.  Children 
are  under  great  obligations  to  their  parents  ;  for  these 
give  them  food  and  shelter  and  clothing  and  education 
and  all  the  love  and  help  of  home.  They  owe  a  great 
deal  to  father  and  mother,  who  gave  them  life,  and  will 
do  their  best  to  make  their  lives  fruitful  and  happy. 
So  boys  and  girls  ought  (owe  it)  to  do  all  they  can  in 
return  to  make  life  at  home  pleasant  and  cheerful  for 
their  parents.  So,  likewise,  men  and  women  owe  a 
great  deal  to  the  human  society  in  which  they  are  liv- 
ing, and  which  is  the  source  of  very  much  of  their  hap- 
piness and  welfare.  They  owe  it  to  one  another  (ought) 
to  be  polite,  to  be  ready  to  assist  in  case  of  need,  to 
take  an  interest  in  each  other's  well-being,  and  in  all 
their  relations  to  give  as  well  as  take. 

"  Duty  "  is  another  great  word  of  the  law  which  is  over 
all  men  living  together  in  society,     Our  duty  is  what  is 


40  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

due  from  us  to  others :  so  it  means  the  same  thing  as 
"  ought."  "  Ought  "  and  "  duty  "  —  two  of  the  greatest 
words  in  our  language  —  always  indicate  that  we  live 
in  society,  that  there  are  laws  and  conditions  of  social 
welfare,  as  of  individual  happiness,  and  that  whatever 
these  laws  require  men  and  women  to  do,  in  order  that 
society  may  be  strong  and  pure  and  helpful  to  each  per- 
son who  is  a  member  of  it,  this  all  men  and  women  owe 
to  society  ;  this  they  ought  to  do  ;  this  is  their  duty. 
''Each  for  all,  all  for  each,"  is  the  proper  motto  of 
human  society.  It  is  a  whole  in  which  each  of  us  is  a 
part ;  and  each  must  act,  not  as  if  he  or  she  were  the 
centre  of  all  things,  but  as  if  recognizing  that  we  are 
to  do  each  his  part  and  to  take  each  h^s  portion.  It  is 
the  natural  function  of  the  child,  the  scholar,  the  ser- 
vant, the  workman  and  the  soldier,  to  act  according  to 
oi'ders,  —  to  obey  parents,  teachers,  masters,  foremen,  or 
officers.  These  command  in  the  interest  of  the  family, 
the  school,  the  factory,  or  the  army-regiment  as  a 
whole;  they  are  themselves  subject  to  the  moral  law 
of  these  associations,  and  if  they  command  by  right, 
they  also  have  the  duty,  they  ouglit  to  provide  for  those 
who  obey  their  orders. 

The  end  of  all  obedience  to  the  moral  law  is  the  high- 
est and  greatest  welfare  of  every  human  being  as  an 
individual  and  as  a  member  of  the  great  body  which  we 
call  human  society.  This  is  a  body,  an  organism,  in 
which  each  of  us  is  a  member.^  If  every  child  took  its 
own  way,  with  out  regard  to  the  advice  or  the  command  of 
its  parents,  the  true  family  life  would  be  impossible ;  if 
every  scholar  did  as  he  pleased  about  studying  or  recit- 
ing, the  very  reason  for  having  schools  at  all  would  be 
defeated  ;  if  servants  obeyed  orders  from  their  masters 
or  mistresses  only  when  they  "  felt  like  it,"  little  work 
would  be  done  ;  if  men  in  a  factory  acted  according  to 

^  Compare  St.  Paul  (First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  xii.  14-26),  and 
Menenius  Agrippa  in  Shakespeare's  Coriolamis,  I.  i. 


OBEDIENCE  TO  MORAL  LAW.  41 

their  own  fancy,  and  idled  or  worked  as  the  humor 
seized  them,  the  factory  would  soou  have  to  be  closed 
and  the  men  would  receive  no  more  wages  ;  if  every 
private  in  a  company  acted  as  if  he  were  just  "  as  big  a 
man  "  as  the  captain,  there  would  be  no  use  in  trying  to 
fight  a  battle.  Thus  the  welfare  of  the  whole  house- 
hold,  of  the  whole  school,  of  the  whole  factory,  and  of 
the  whole  company  of  soldiers  depends  upon  obedience 
to  those  in  authority.  Every  person  in  authority,  in  his 
turn,  is  bound  in  duty  (ought)  to  work  for  the  welfare 
of  each  and  all  of  those  who  make  up  the  whole  body 
of  which  he  has  the  control.  We  do  not  obey  for  the 
sake  of  obedience  ;  we  do  not  command  for  the  sake  of 
commanding,  but  whether  we  obey  or  command,  we  do 
it  that  each  person  may  reach  his  highest  happiness 
and  welfare,  both-  as  an  individual  and  as  a  part  of 
society. 

Disobedience  means  disorder  in  all  the  associations  of 
men  with  one  another ;  it  means  lawlessness,  self-will, 
the  setting-up  of  ourselves  as  the  whole,  or  as  the  most 
important  part  of  the  whole  ;  it  means  that  we  ask  other 
people  to  take  our  will  for  law,  instead  of  the  moral 
law.  But  this  will  not  do  in  the  relations  of  human 
beings  with  one  another,  any  more  than  it  would  do  in 
our  relations  with  natural  forces.  Society,  therefore,  in 
order  to  preserve  itself  and  so  give  its  members  (you 
and  me  and  all  of  us)  the  best  things  that  human  life 
can  afford,  enforces  moral  law.  Some  parts  of  this  law, 
such  as  those  which  forbid  killing  and  robbing,  are 
written  down  in  that  "  law  of  the  land "  or  "  statute 
law,"  which  we  began  by  speaking  of.  Other  com- 
mands of  the  moral  law  men  have  found  it  best  not  to 
try  to  enforce  by  written  laws,  but  to  leave  to  what  we 
call  public  opinion  to  deal  with.  Thus,  if  a  man  is 
unkind  and  harsh  in  his  treatment  of  his  children,  the 
law  will  not  do  anything  to  him  so  long  as  he  is  not 
actually  cruel.     Most  men  are  influenced  very  much  by 


42  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

what  other  people  think  and  say  concerning  them,  and 
we  find  by  experience  that  many  wrongs  are  righted 
more  effectually  by  leaving  them  to  public  opinion  to 
settle  than  by  passing  laws  against  them. 

Still  other  parts  of  the  moral  law  we  leave  to  each 
person  to  discover  and  obey  for  himself,  according  to 
his  circumstances,  his  education  and  his  moral  sense. 
But  whatever  is  actual  moral  law,  tending  to  the  wel- 
fare of  each  and  all,  is  to  be  obeyed  ;  whether  we  know 
the  law  or  not,  we  suffer  bad  consequences  from  not 
living  in  compliance  with  its  demands,  or  we  prosper 
because  we  are  acting  in  accordance  with  it.  For  man 
the  end  of  all  obedience  to  law  is  his  welfare  ;  he  lives 
under  law,  and  he  finds  freedom  and  happiness,  not  in 
fighting  against  the  conditions,  physical  or  moral,  of 
human  life,  but  in  full  and  cheerful  acceptance  of  them. 
Freedom  is  not  in  "  having  our  own  way,"  but  in  follow- 
ing the  best  ways  that  mankind,  in  its  thousands  of 
years  of  life  on  this  earth,  has  discovered.  Freedom  is 
realized  in  life  according  to  the  laws  of  human  nature 
in  society.  Life  through  obedience  to  reason  and  all 
that  reason  tells  us  of  law  —  this  is  moral  life,  the  life 
that  renders  human  society  possible,  and  makes  it  better 
and  better  as  we  learn  more  of  the  moral  law  and  obey 
it  more  faithfully.  The  natural  rulers  of  human  so- 
ciety are  those  who  know  more  of  life  than  ourselves ; 
so  we  should  respect  the  laws  which  have  been  ascer- 
tained by  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  many  minds ; 
we  should  respect  the  voice  of  public  opinion  in  regard 
to  matters  of  right  and  wrong.  When  we  have  been 
educated  by  experience  of  life  ourselves,  we  shall  still 
find  that  the  moral  law  is  supreme  over  every  other  law 
for  man,  as  it  is  simply  the  highest  law  of  our  own  nature. 
Desire  to  know  this  law  and  willingness  to  obey  it  — 
this  is  the  fundamental  matter  in  human  life.  The 
spirit  that  is  essential  to  our  highest  welfare  is  the 
spirit  of  obedience.     Our  first  lesson  is  to  obey  father 


OBEDIENCE  TO  MORAL  LAW.  43 

and  mother  at  home,  but  we  uever  outgrow  the  necessity 
of  obedience  to  moral  hiw. 

"  Who  is  it  thwarts  and  bilks  the  inward  must  ? 
He  and  his  works  like  sand  from  earth  are  blown." 


NOTES. 


The  desire  to  command,  or  the  love  of  power,  is  oue  of  the 
fundamental  desires  in  human  nature;  with  many  persons  it  is 
predominant.  Obedience  is  not  in  itself  pleasant  to  children,  or 
to  men  and  women.  But  there  are  few  leaders  and  many  fol- 
lowers in  human  life.  Napoleon,  the  most  masterful  of  men, 
declared  that  he  learned  to  command  through  the  obedience  re- 
quired at  the  school  of  Brienne,  and  Emei-son  says  that  "  obe- 
dience alone  gives  the  right  to  command."  The  more  perfectly 
parents  seek  to  carry  out  the  law  of  the  home,  and  teachers  the 
law  of  the  school,  which  prescribe  duties  to  themselves,  the  more 
capable  will  they  be  of  commanding  wisely.  Children  are  quick 
to  observe  the  evil  consequences  of  disobedience  at  home  or  in 
school  when  their  own  conduct  is  not  in  question.  Press  home 
to  them  the  reasons  for  the  very  existence  of  such  associations, 
which  are  defeated  by  insubordination.  The  military  drill  fur- 
nishes a  good  analogy;  the  lives  of  great  generals  and  the  his- 
tories of  wars  are  full  of  incidents  illustrating  the  prime  need  of 
obedience.  All  associations  for  profit  or  pleasure  must  have 
leaders,  and  the  submission  we  pay  them  is  but  a  type  of  the 
obedience  mankind  owes  to  the  whole  moral  law. 

The  great  Stoic  moralists,  like  _Mareus  Aurelius  and  Epic- 
tetus,  have  dwelt  forcibly  on  the  virtue  of  obedience.  The  in- 
scription on  the  monument  at  Thermopylfe  ran:  "Go,  stranger, 
and  tell  at  Lacedfemon  that  we  died  here  in  obedience  to  her 
lav/s."  The  citizen  of  the  ancient  city  was  a  devotee  to  its  wel- 
fare. So  A.  H.  Clough  has  said:  "The  liigliest  political  watch- 
word is  not  liberty,  equality,  fraternity,  nor  yet  solidarity,  but 
service."  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon  declares  that,  "  The  very  true 
beginning  of  wisdom  is  the  desire  of  disci])line.  If  a  man  love 
righteousness,  wisdom's  labors  are  virtues;  for  she  teacheth  tem- 
perance and  prudence,  justice  and  fortitude  ;  which  are  such 
things  as  men  can  have  nothing  more  profitable  in  their  life." 


44  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

Men  become  masters  of  the  forces  of  nature  by  first  obeying 
their  laws;  so  in  morality,  "laws  are  not  masters,  but  servants, 
and  he  rules  them  who  obeys  them."     (H.  W.  Beecher.) 

See  Miss  E.  Simcox's  Natural  Law;  James  Martineau's  Types 
of  Ethical  Theory,  vol.  ii.  chapter  4,  and  Leslie  Stephen's  Science 
of  Ethics,  for  discussions  of  the  ground  of  authority  in  the  moral 
law,  and  Lecky's  European  Murals,  for  a  good  view  of  Stoi- 
cism. 

"  I  slept  and  dreamed  that  life  was  beauty ; 
I  woke  and  found  that  life  was  duty." 

Duty  is  changed  to  delight  when  love  is  seen  to  be  "  the  ful- 
filling of  the  law." 


CHAPTER  III. 

SELF-CONTROL. 

It  is  very  easy  for  us  to  say  that  we  all  ought  to  obey 
the  moral  law.  But  very  often,  and  especially  when  we 
are  young  and  have  not  had  nuich  experience  of  life,  we 
find  it  hard  to  obey  this  law  ourselves.  Children  like 
to  have  their  own  way  when  it  seems  to  them  pleasanter 
than  to  obey  their  parents  or  teachers  who  bid  them 
take  another  way.  John,  for  instance,  is  playing  mar- 
bles, and  his  mother  tells  him  to  come  and  get  ready  for 
school,  as  he  has  only  time  enough  to  get  there  in  season. 
But  John  prefers  play  to  school,  just  then ;  perhaps  he 
prefers  it  all  the  time  !  So  he  keeps  on  with  his  game, 
and  his  mother  has  to  leave  her  work  to  speak  to  him 
again,  and  possibly  she  is  obliged  to  come  out  and  make 
him  get  ready  at  once.  Then  he  is  late  at  school,  and 
probably  he  has  got  to  feeling  so  ill-tempered,  because 
he  has  been  compelled  to  leave  his  game,  that  he  will 
not  study,  and  so  he  fails  in  his  lesson,  and  the  teacher 
keeps  him  after  school  to  make  it  iip.  John  feels 
worse  than  ever,  and  when  he  gets  through  he  is  dis- 
gusted with  school  and  home,  and  he  thinks  it  will  be 
very  fine  to  be  a  man  and  do  as  he  pleases.  All  this  is 
the  result  of  his  disobedience  to  his  mother.  But  men 
and  women  laugh  at  him,  and  tell  him  that  he  is  very 
foolish  not  to  see  how  easy  a  time  he  is  having  now ;  his 
father  and  mother  care  for  him,  and  he  does  not  have  to 
work  to  get  his  food  and  lodging  and  clothing  and  edu- 
cation. They  are  doing  their  utmost  to  make  his  life, 
present  and  future,  good  and  happy ;  being  much  older, 
having  been  children   themselves,   and  having   gained 


46  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

much  more  wisdom  from  experience  than  he  can  have, 
they  know  far  more  thoroughly  what  is  best  for  him 
than  he  can  know.  When  he  is  grown  up,  and  is  a  man 
in  fact,  not  merely  in  imagination,  he  will  have  a  man's 
work  to  do,  and  he  should  have  plenty  of  knowledge  and 
skill  to  do  that  work  well ;  he  will  not  be  able  to  "  do 
as  he  pleases "  and  at  the  same  time  be  a  good  and 
capable  man. 

A  considerable  number  of  persons  who  think  they  ccai 
do  as  they  please  find  themselves,  naturally,  after  a 
time,  in  jails  or  prisons,  because  people  in  general  will 
not  allow  them  to  do  as  they  like,  when  it  comes  to 
stealing  or  cheating,  or  doing  bodily  injury  to  others. 
No  !  the  obedience  due  to  father  and  mother  and  teacher 
is  comparatively  a  simple  and  easy  matter  for  John, 
if  he  did  but  know  it.  He  is  acting  foolishly  and  un- 
reasonably in  setting  himself  up  so,  as  the  only  person 
whose  pleasure  is  to  be  considered.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
he  is  not  so  important  a  person  as  he  thinks,  and  the 
sooner  he  learns  this,  the  better  it  will  be  for  all  con- 
cerned. 

Here  is  another  boy,  Thomas,  who  likes  to  play  just 
as  well  as  John  does  ;  but  he  loves  his  mother  and  de- 
sires to  make  her  happy  by  obeying  her  cheerfully  and 
readily.  He  wishes  to  please  the  teacher  by  being 
punctual,  and  attentive  to  his  studies  in  school  time.  So 
he  quits  his  game  at  once,  when  his  mother  reminds  him 
that  she  has  an  errand  for  him  to  do  on  the  way  to 
school,  and  that  it  is  time  to  go.  He  Avalks  along  whis- 
tling and  thinking  how  fortunate  he  is  that  li^  can  some- 
times do  little  things,  at  least,  to  show  his  gratitude  for 
all  that  his  mother  does  for  him  in  her  love  for  her  boy. 
When  he  gets  to  school  he  remembers  that  he  is  there 
to  study  ;  he  puts  all  his  mind  on  his  book  ;  the  lesson 
comes  easy,  he  recites  well,  the  teacher  is  glad  to  see 
him  so  willing  and  ready,  and  he  returns  home  with  a 
light  heart.    All  has  gone  well  with  him  during  the  day. 


SELF-CONTROL.  47 

Why  ?  Because  he  has  cheerfully  done  his  part.  It 
is  not  a  great  part,  but  it  is  something  which  no  one  else 
covild  do  for  him,  and  it  is  necessary  that  he  should  do 
it  readily  if,  at  home  and  school,  all  is  to  go  on  pleas- 
antly and  profitably. ' 

Whefn  Thomas  is  at  home,  he  feels  that  he  is  but  one 
among  several  persons  who  make  up  the  family ;  that 
his  father  and  mother  are  wiser  than  he  and  anxious  to 
have  him  do,  and  to  do  for  him,  only  what  is  best ;  and 
that  all  goes  well  only  when  each  one  in  the  family 
group  thinks  of  the  welfare  of  all  the  others  as  well  as 
of  his  own  happiness;  so  he  tries  to  do  his  share",  to 
help  as  much  as  he  can  in  making  life  happy  for  all  at 
home.  When  Thomas  is  at  school,  he  bears  in  mind 
that  school  is  meant  as  a  place  to  learn  in,  and  that 
in  order  to  learn  well  he  must  leave  off:  playing,  and 
"  buckle  down  "  to  his  book,  and  be  quiet  and  obey  the 
orders  of  the  teacher.  He  sees  tliat  these  orders  are  for 
the  good  of  the  whole  school,  of  which  he  is  a  part  and 
only  a  part,  and  that  nothing  could  be  more  unreasonable 
than  for  him  to  neglect  study  and  be  noisy  and  mis- 
chievous, thus  keeping  the  teacher's  attention  on  him- 
self and  disturbing  the  rest  of  the  scholars  in  their 
duty.  Thomas  is  a  healthy,  lively  boy,  who  likes  to 
play  and  have  a  good  time.  But  he  wishes  others  to 
have  a  good  time  too ;  such  "  good  times "  in  school 
mean  good  order,  and  good  lessons,  and  teachers  and 
scholars  all  pleased  and  busy  with  the  good  work  to  be 
done  by  them,  in  learning  and  teaching.  That  is  a  good 
time  anywhere,  when  f/ie  thing  to  do  in  that  time  and 
place  is  done  finely  and  thoroughly.  Now  Thomas  plays 
with  all  his  soul  in  play-hours,  and  in  the  place  and 
time  for  study  he  studies  with  all  his  might.  He  has  a 
strong  impulse  to  play  too  long,  or  in  school,  but  he 
resists  it  —  as  we  can  resist  any  impulse  in  ourselves  if 
we  will  —  and  conquers  it,  and  the  better  impulse  wins 
the  day. 


48  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

We  have  had  much  to  say  about  obedience  to  law 
as  the  foundation  of  all  good  human  life.  But  we  all 
have  inclinations  at  times  to  prefer  our  own  wishes  or 
desires,  however  unreasonable  they  may  be,  to  the  obe- 
dience which  though  reasonable  seems  hard  and  dis- 
agreeable. We  are  so  made  that  there  is  often  this  con- 
flict between  what  we  knotv  to  be  the  proper  thing  for 
lis  to  do  and  the  thing  we  wish  at  the  time  to  do.  We 
must,  therefore,  learn  to  control  ourselves ;  we  must 
practise  the  very  necessary  art  of  making  ourselves  do 
what  is  disagreeable,  if  it  seems  to  us  the  right  and 
reasonable  thing,  until  it  shall  come  to  be  not  only  right 
and  reasonable  but  also  agreeable  to  us,  for  this  very 
cause.  This  is  precisely  what  we  often  have  to  do  in 
other  matters  than  our  dealings  with  human  beings. 

We  need  training  in  the  art  of  conduct  as  in  every 
other  art.  Mary  has  musical  talent  and  she  is  anxious 
to  learn  to  play  the  piano-forte.  So  her  father  buys  one 
and  engages  a  teacher  for  her ;  and  the  first  lessons  are 
very  pleasant.  But  after  a  time,  Mary  gets  tired  of 
scales  and  exercises,  and  begins  to  think  that  it  is  not 
"  worth  while."  She  is  discouraged  and  talks  of  giving 
up.  But  others  tell  her,  she  can  see  herself,  that  ex- 
cellence in  piano-playing  comes  to  most  persons  only 
through  diligence  and  patience  in  mastering  the  ele- 
ments. She  is  soon  encouraged  to  find  that  she  can 
play  simple  exercises  without  keeping  her  eyes  on  the 
keys  ;  after  a  time  she  can  play  easy  tunes  without 
notes,  and,  if  she  continues  to  persevere,  she  comes  in 
time  to  do  almost  automatically  what  was  once  very 
difficult  for  her.  She  is  amused  now  at  the  recollection 
that  she  ever  found  a  certain  exercise  hard  to  play. 
Mary  has  fully  complied  with  the  conditions  of  excel- 
lence in  music.  She  controls  her  desire  to  give  up  and 
try  something  easier.  She  perseveres  and  conquers  the 
difficulties,  one  by  one.  By  "  sticking  to  it  "  and  prac- 
tising and  practising,  she  establishes  what  are  called 


SELF-  CON  TEOL.  49 

"  lines  of  least  resistance  ; "  her  fingers  move  swiftly 
over  the  keys,  she  acquires  skill  in  her  art,  and  she  finds 
future  progress  much  easier  in  proportion,  as  her  self- 
control  increases. 

With  all  our  different  characters  and  dispositions  few 
of  us  find  it  easy  to  do  always  the  thing  that  we  know 
to  be  right.  We  must,  then,  if  we  are  to  acquire  the 
fine  art  of  good  conduct,  learn  self-control,  and  this  im- 
plies patience  and  perseverance.  By  practice  we  shall 
establish  "  lines  of  least  resistance  "'  in  our  relations 
with  others,  over  which  we  shall  in  time  move  with  an 
ease  and  freedom  that  will  surprise  ourselves. 

Self-control  is  necessary  to  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
conduct.  But  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  have  a 
sense  of  effort  and  difficulUj  in  doing  what  we  call 
"right,"  in  order  that  it  should  be  truly  right  or  "vir- 
tuous "  in  us.  On  the  contrary,  the  ideal  we  should  al- 
ways hold  before  ourselves  is  to  make  the  doing  of  right 
deeds,  the  living  of  a  virtuous  life,  the  easiest  and 
most  agreeable  thing  to  do.  In  the  beginning,  we 
have  pains  and  trouble  in  making  our  habits  better, 
until  they  are  right  and  good  in  certain  respects  ;  then 
habit  slowly  becomes  a  second  nature,  taking  the  place 
of  the  former  untrained  and  undisciplined  nature,^  until, 
at  last,  it  is  "  as  easy  now  for  the  heart  to  be  true  As  for 
grass  to  be  green  or  skies  to  be  blue,  —  'T  is  the  natural 
way  of  living."  We  need  to  practise  self-control  until 
the  self  is  altered  for  the  better  —  we  can  alter  it  — 
and  then,  when  it  is  changed  for  the  better,  it  may  well 
have  free  play  in  that  direction,  A  hasty-tempered  man 
might  find  it  hard  at  first  to  wait  and  count  a  hundred, 
according  to  the  old  rule,  before  he  speaks,  when  he 
feels  himself  getting  angry.  But  in  time  he  should  be 
strong  enough,  from  long  resistance  to  his  native  im- 
pulse, to  trust  himself  to  speak  at  once. 

^  "Habit  a  second  nature,"  said  the  great  Duke   of   AVellinglon 
"  it  is  ten  times  nature !  ' ' 


50  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

In  every  art  the  acquirement  of  skill  and  excellence 
implies  discipline,  and  discipline  means  patience  and 
self-control.  Most  of  all  in  the  art  of  arts,  at  which  we 
are  continually  practising,  the  art  of  a  noble  life,  is  the 
desire  of  discipline  "the  very  true  beginning  of  wis- 
dom." On  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  height  of  unwisdom 
to  ask  continually :  "  Why  should  I  control  myself  ? 
Why  should  I  not  have  my  own  way  ?  "  This  would  not 
be  so  foolish  if  you  were  the  only  person  in  the  world, 
and  there  were  no  one  else  to  be  affected  by  your  actions. 
In  that  case,  you  might  properly  do  many  things  which 
it  is  not  right  or  reasonable  for  you  to  do  in  a  world 
where  you  are  surrounded  by  many  other  human  beings. 
These  other  persons  you  expect  to  be  considerate  of  the 
fact  that  you  yourself  exist,  and  that  they  owe  you 
something,  as  another  human  being,  in  all  their  rela- 
tions with  you.  When  you  are  ready  to  say  that  others 
owe  you  nothing,  then  you  can  ask  why  you  owe  it 
to  them  to  control  yourself,  to  abate  your  extravagant 
claims,  and  to  be  content  with  your  reasonable  portion 
of  good  things.  Each  of  these  other  persons  has  a 
"  self "  also,  which  he  is  bound  to  preserve  and  care 
for,  according  to  the  instinct  of  nature  and  the  teach- 
ings of  reason. 

Very  many  things  which  are  necessary  to  our  life,  to 
our  progress,  and  to  our  comfort,  we  can  do  for  ourselves 
better  than  any  one  else,  or  perhaps  any  number  of 
other  persons  can  do  them  for  us.  It  is  natural  and 
right  that  we  should  "  assert  ourselves,"  and  claim  what 
is  needful  for  living  our  human  life.  Nature  makes 
this  instinct  of  self-regard  exceedingly  strong  in  each 
one  of  us,  and  it  is  one  of  two  or  three  fundamental 
forces  in  directing  all  our  actions.  Man  is  chiefly  dis- 
tinguished from  the  lower  animals,  however,  in  that  he 
can  reason  to  himself  about  this  instinct  of  self-preser- 
vation and  self-regard  and  the  great  instinct  of  regard 
for  others  (sympathy)  which  is  just  as  much  a  part  of 


SELF-CONTROL.  61 

our  nature,  and  can  determine  what  is  the  proper  place 
for  each  motive  in  his  actions. 

Constant  experience  teaches  us  very  plainly  how  much 
stronger  the  natural  instinct  of  self-assertion  is  than  the 
other  instincts  which  lead  us  to  forget  self  in  thinking 
of  others.  So  we  learn  that  the  essential  spirit  of 
morality  is  self-control  by  reason.  jMorality  holds 
us  back  from  making  a  self-assertion  that  is  "  exorbi- 
tant "  (i.  e.,  which  takes  us  out  of  our  proper  "  orbit ")  ; 
it  gives  us  a  more  moderate  notion  of  what  others 
should  do  for  us  (i.  e.,  of  what  we  call  our  rights),  and 
it  stimulates  us  to  do  what  we  ought,  what  we  really 
owe  to  others  (i.  e.,  our  duties).  There  is  no  rule  for 
determining  rights  and  duties  but  the  rule  of  reason,  as 
in  all  other  human  affairs.  Men,  however,  have  been 
living  in  social  relations  so  many  generations  that  they 
have  found  out  a  great  many  facts  and  laws  of  conduct. 
They  have  acquired  a  large  amount  of  practical  wisdom 
and  of  moral  "  faculty  "  which  has  been  handed  down 
from  one  generation  to  another,  each  increasing  it. 

A  new  person  coming  into  the  world  does  not  need, 
therefore,  to  try  all  kinds  of  actions  to  find  out  which 
are  hurtful  and  which  are  helpful  to  himself  and  others. 
But  he  should  be  docile,  i.  e.,  teachable,  and  willing  to 
learn  what  things  have  already  been  found  good  to  do, 
and  what  things  have  been  found  to  be  bad.  To  be 
docile  is  to  have  such  self-control  that  we  shall  not  set 
ourselves  up  as  wiser  than  everybody  else.  We  need  to 
live  long  before  we  can  do  wisely  in  contradicting  or 
correcting  any  of  the  simple  practical  rules  for  common 
conduct  which  men  ages  ago  found  out,  and  which  mil- 
lions of  human  beings  have  learned  are  reasonable  by 
trying  to  live  according  to  them.  These  moral  precepts 
are  working  laws  of  human  conduct,  which  are  gradu- 
ally extended  and  made  definite  in  the  long  course  of 
human  experience.  It  has  thus  become  natural  for  civ- 
ilized men  to  live  obedient  to  moral  law  as  to  physical 


52  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

law.  But  not  all  men  are  civilized.  Xo  one  is  really 
civilized  until  he  has  learned  to  know  himself,  in  some 
degree  at  least,  as  a  part  of  the  social  order,  and  to  fit 
himself  by  self-control  for  his  place  in  this  order. 

We  are  not  called  upon  by  reason  to  sacrifice  our- 
selves in  the  common  relations  of  social  life,  but  rather 
to  preserve  ourselves  wisely,  and  to  make  the  best 
and  the  most  of  oiirselves,  keeping  in  view  the  good 
of  each  and  the  good  of  all.  Human  society  is  made  up 
of  as  many  "  selves  "  as  there  are  persons  in  it.  Each  of 
these  selves  appears,  usually,  to  itself  to  be  much  more 
important  and  deserving  of  consideration  than  it  does 
to  others.  This  is  a  common  fact  of  human  nature, 
which  is  seen  to  be  justifiable  in  reason  when  we  con- 
sider the  further  fact  that  each  one  of  these  "  selves  " 
has  the  chief  responsibility  of  caring  for  itself.  There 
is,  therefore,  a  very  proper  "  selfhood  "  ^  for  each  and 
every  human  being ;  his  self-existing,  with  no  need  of 
excuse,  is  a  most  important  fact  to  him. 

We  need  to  cultivate  and  develop  ourselves ;  self- 
culture  is  both  an  end  in  itself  and  an  essential  means 
to  helping  others  most  effectually.  As  a  part  of  this 
development  and  cultivation,  the  control  of  self  by  our 
knowledge,  by  our  reason,  by  our  social  instinct,  by 
sympathy,  by  the  Golden  Rule,  is  of  the  first  impor- 
tance. We  do  not  think  of  standing  on  our  heads  as  a 
regular  exercise  or  as  a  common  position.  Our  feet  are 
the  parts  of  our  body  meant  to  walk  with,  and  to  stand 
on.  So  our  minds  are  given  us  to  use  in  discovering 
the  laws  of  human  life ;  and  the  laws  of  right  conduct, 
when  once  discovered,  are  no  less  natural  than  the  prac- 
tice of  walking  on  our  feet.  The  general  moral  law  of 
self-control  means  that  any  and  every  force  in  us  —  of 

^  Just  as  we  say  "childhood"  and  "manhood,"  not  blaming  or 
praising  the  child,  because  it  is  a  child,  or  the  man  because  he  is  a 
man  Dr.  Dewey  was  wise  in  advising  the  restoration  of  the  word  to 
present  usage. 


SELF-CONTROL.  53 

feeling  or  passion  or  temper  —  must  be  kept  obedient  to 
our  enlightened  reason  and  our  disciplined  will.  Reason 
teaclies  us,  for  example,  to  prefer  a  larger  to  a  smaller 
good,  and  to  subordinate  the  brief  present  to  the  long 
future.  Education,  therefore,  is  better  for  a  child  than 
unlimited  play,  because  it  will  outgrow  the  desire  for 
play,  and  its  childhood  will  give  place  to  manhood,  and 
this  should  be  instructed  and  capable,  as  only  years  of 
previous  education  can  make  it. 


NOTES. 

Self-control  should  be  taken  to  mean  restraint  of  the  lower 
self,  —  the  aniuaal,  sensual,  anti-social  instincts  and  tendencies. 
The  higher,  nobler  self,  that  finds  its  true  life  in  the  life  of  all, 
is  thus  free  to  emerge  and  assert  itself  with  power.  The  higher 
self  is  to  take  the  lower  self  in  hand,  and  show  its  own  ability 
to  shape  thought,  feeling,  and  action  toward  an  ideal  excellence. 
(See  the  treatment  of  the  Will  by  the  various  writers  on  ethics, 
such  as  Noah  Porter  in  his  Elements  of  Moral  Science.)  In  this 
process  the  lower  self  is  not  sacrificed,  but  simply  confined  to  its 
own  sphere.  An  admirable  discussion  of  this  point  is  the  lecture 
on  Selfhood  and  Sacrifce,  by  liev.  Dr.  Orville  Dewey,  in  the  vol- 
ume entitled  Christianity  and  Modern  Thought. 

The  formation  of  good  habits  is  the  obvious  step  toward 
diminishing  the  difficulty  of  self-control.  As  Walter  Bagehot 
says,  the  first  step  in  the  moral  culture  of  the  child  is  "  to 
secrete  a  crust  of  custom."  J.  F.  Clarke  in  his  Self-Culture  is 
especially  good  on  the  education  of  the  will.  "  Self-reliance, 
self-restraint,  self-control,  self-direction,  these  constitute  an  edu- 
cated will.  .  .  .  Freedom  is  self-direction.  The  two  diseases  of 
the  will  are  indecision,  or  weakness  of  will,  and  wilfulness,  or 
unregulated  strength  of  will.  The  cure  for  both  is  self-direction, 
according  to  conscience  and  truth." 

Read  The  Conqueror^s  Grave,  by  Bryant  ;  "  Prune  thou  thy 
words,"  by  J.  H.  Newman  ;  "  How  happy  is  he  born  or  taught," 
by  Sir  Henry  Wotton  ;  Emerson's  lines,  closing, 

"  When  Duty  whispers  low,  '  Thou  must,' 
The  youth  replies,  '  I  can ; '  " 


54  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

and  Matthew  Arnold's  Morality, 

"  Tasks  in  hours  of  iusigbt  willed 
Can  be  through  hours  of  gloom  fulfilled." 

He  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  greater  than  he  that  taketh  a 
city;  so  the  lives  of  famous  inventors  teach  us,  as  they  bend  all 
things  to  serve  their  aim.  See  Mr.  Smiles's  Lives  of  the  Ste- 
phensons,  Men  of  Invention  and  Industry,  and  Life  and  Labor, 
for  instances  of  this  truth. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

TRUTHFULNESS. 

We  have  thus  far  been  attending  to  the  great  facts 
that  all  human  life  is  under  law  ;  that  one  of  the  most 
important  laws  for  man,  if  not  the  most  important,  is 
the  moral  law  which  springs  from  his  very  nature  as  a 
member  of  society  ;  and  that  we  are  obliged,  as  we  are 
also  able,  to  govern  or  control  ourselves  so  as  to  live 
according  to  this  law.  We  have  been  speaking  of  the 
actual  world  of  nature  and  human  society  in  which 
we  all  live.  Now,  a  very  large  part  of  our  life  depends 
for  its  character  and  its  results  upon  what  we  report  to 
each  other  about  what  is  or  has  been.  We  have  by  na- 
ture the  faculty  of  speech  by  which  we  communicate  with 
each  other,  and  we  have  found  out  the  arts  of  writing 
and  printing.  But  we  have  not  only  eyes  to  see  and 
ears  to  hear,  and  the  organs  of  three  other  senses,  which 
present  to  our  minds  the  realities  of  the  outward  world  ; 
we  have  also  a  faculty  of  imagination  by  which  we  can 
form  to  ourselves  another  view  of  things  than  that 
which  our  senses  actually  give,  or  have  given  us.  We 
can  thinli  of  things  otherwise  than  as  they  are.  We  can 
use  words  to  express  our  thoughts  so  that  we  shall  in 
our  speech  re-present  to  others  the  realities  we  know, 
or  we  can  alter  them  in  our  speech  so  that  our  words 
will  not  correspond  to  the  facts  as  we  think  them  to  be. 

We  call  it  speaking  the  truth  when  any  one  de- 
scribes things  as  they,  in  fact,  appear  to  him  to  be,  or 
relates  events  as  his  senses  showed  them  to  him.  He 
may  be  mistaken,  as  his  senses  or  his  judgment  may 
have  misled  him ;  but  so  long  as  he  intends  to  re-pre- 


66  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

sent  fact,  he  is  tndhfal.  On  the  contrary,  when,  for 
any  cause,  he  means  to  sj)eak,  and  does  speak,  of  things 
or  events  as  they  were  7iot,  or  are  not,  then  he  is  false. 
He  intends  to  deceive  us,  whether  he  succeeds  in  doing 
so  or  not.  The  first  and  natural  use  of  words,  or  hu- 
man speech,  is  to  represent  reality.  AVe  are  in  a  very 
high  degree  dependent  on  eacli  other's  words  as  to  what 
the  facts  of  life  are.  A  large  part,  probably  the  largest 
part,  of  our  own  words  and  actions  are  based  upon  our 
confidence  that  other  human  beings  have  spoken  to  us 
the  truth. 

In  courts  of  law  the  witness  who  is  called  upon  to 
state  what  he  knows  about  the  case,  swears,  or  affirms, 
that  he  will  tell  "the  truth,  the  Avhole  truth,  and  no- 
thing but  the  truth."  In  ordinary  life  we  go  upon  the 
assumption,  generally,  that  the  words  we  hear  corre- 
spond to  fact,  that  people  are  re-presenting  to  us  the 
facts  as  they  are,  or  have  been  ;  and  we  act  in  accord- 
ance with  this  confidence.  We  must  live  in  an  actual 
world  :  we  cannot  live  in  an  imaginary  world,  as  it  has 
no  reality.  All  our  own  words  that  are  based  upon  a 
falsehood  told  us  by  another,  instead  of  a  truth,  have 
no  foundation  in  fact,  and  must,  therefore,  count  for 
little  or  nothing  in  the  end.  All  that  we  do,  thinking 
and  believing  that  a  certain  other  thing  has  been  done, 
because  we  have  been  told  so,  when,  in  fact,  it  has  not 
been  done,  lacks  proper  foundation,  and  is  likely  to 
come  to  naught,  or  to  work  harm  instead  of  good.  A 
true  report  of  facts  is,  then,  the  first  condition  of  satis- 
factory intercourse  of  human  beings  with  one  another. 
They  must  have  a  substantial  confidence  in  one  an- 
other's general  truthfulness.  Otherwise,  they  can  have 
little  dealing  with  one  another.  All  human  undertak- 
ings must  finally  rest  upon  reality,  and  correspond  to 
fact ;  every  departure  from  fact  means  for  all  men  loss 
and  harm. 

Hence  arises  the  prime  necessity  of  truthfulness  in 


TRUTHFULNESS.  57 

human  society.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases,  men 
naturally  tell  the  truth ;  i.  e.,  whether  it  is  to  their  own 
advantage  or  not,  they  re-present  things  in  speech  as 
these  have  appeared  to  them  in  reality.  If  this  were 
not  the  case,  social  life,  in  which  men  inevitably  depend 
upon  one  another  for  information  and  guidance,  would 
be  impossible.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  much 
easier  to  say  a  false  "word,  thus  misrepresenting  fact 
in  some  degree,  than  it  is  to  do  any  one  of  a  hundred 
wrong  acts.  More  than  this :  when  we  have  con- 
sciously done  a  bad  deed,  we  usually  wish  to  avoid  the 
consequences  of  it,  and  we  naturally  try  to  escape  them 
by  lying  about  it.  So  offences  against  truth  are  the 
common  attendants  of  wrong  actions  of  a  thousand 
kinds.  "  Vice  has  many  tools,"  it  is  said ;  "  but  a  lie  is 
the  handle  that  fits  them  all." 

We  wish  our  clocks  and  watches  to  give  us  the  true 
time  —  the  hour  and  minute  that  actually  are,  as  distin- 
guished from  those  that  have  been  and  those  to  come. 
So  we  ask  that  other  human  beings  shall  give  us  "  true 
time  "  in  what  they  say  to  us.  If  the  clock  is  an  hour 
slow  or  half  an  hour  fast,  Ave  cannot  blame  the  clock, 
for  it  is  only  a  machine,  and  cannot  think,  or  be  said  to 
have  any  intention  to  deceive  us  so  that  Ave  shall  miss 
a  train  or  be  late  at  school :  we  properly  find  fault  with 
the  maker  of  the  clock  or  with  the  jeweller  who  should 
have  regulated  it  so  that  it  would  keep  good  time.  But 
boys  and  girls  and  men  and  women  thitik  ;  they  have  an 
intention  in  what  they  say,  and  if  they  tell  us  what  is 
not  true,  it  is  usually  because  they  mean  to  mislead 
us.  The  result  of  their  attempts  to  deceive  us  is  that 
we  lose  that  confidence  which  is  the  very  first  condition 
of  human  dealings.  A  boy  Avho  is  found  to  have  told  a 
lie  is  often  suspected  afterward  of  deceiving  even  when 
he  has  no  desire  or  intention  of  reporting  anything  but 
the  exact  fact.  When  a  witness  has  taken  an  oath  in  a 
court  of  law  to  tell  "  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 


58  THE  LAWS   OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

nothing  but  the  truth,"  and  then  tells  a  falsehood, 
known  or  afterwards  found  out  to  be  such,  he  is  pun- 
ished for  'perjurij  ;  and  if  he  should  ever  come  into  court 
again  as  a  witness,  everybody  would  be  slow  to  believe 
him  in  an  important  matter.  When  a  man  has  the 
reputation  of  being  "  the  biggest  liar  in  the  town,"  what 
he  says  may  very  often  be  entirely  true  ;  but  people  do 
not  believe  that  a  thing  is  so  because  he  says  it.  He 
has  forfeited  the  confidence  of  those  avIio  know  him, 
and  they  will  not  accept  his  sole  word  as  probably  true. 
He  is  put  out  of  the  pale  "of  society,  so  to  speak,  in 
proportion  to  the  greatness  of  his  offences  against  truth, 
and  non-intercourse  with  him  is  practically  declared. 

The  person  who  tells  a  lie  which  is  believed  by  people 
who  have  not  yet  "  found  him  out,"  usually  begins  to 
think  that  a  falsehood  is  a  very  easy  substitute  for  the 
fact.  A  boy,  for  example,  has  disobeyed  his  father,  who 
had  commanded  him  not  to  go  in  swimming  in  the  river 
because  it  is  dangerous  ;  when  he  is  asked  if  he  has 
been  in  the  river,  he  boldly  answers,  "  ISTo."  Thus  he 
adds  to  his  first  fault  a  second.  As  his  father  believes 
him,  John  is  quite  likely  to  try  the  same  plan  again, 
until,  at  last,  he  is  found  out.  Then  his  father  punishes 
him  for  the  disobedience  and  the  lie ;  but  the  woi'st 
part  of  the  whole  punishment  to  John,  if  he  is  a  self- 
respecting  boy,  is  that  his  father  and  mother  will  proba- 
bly not  take  his  word  as  suilicient,  in  any  matter  of 
consequence,  for  some  time  to  come,  until  he  has  shown 
that  he  is  again  to  be  trusted  fully.  But  for  John,  or 
any  one  else,  to  deceive  thus,  and  then  ask  people  to 
treat  him  afterward  as  if  he  had  always  spoken  the 
truth,  is  most  unreasonable.  If  John  were  a  man  in  a 
position  of  responsibility  and  were  detected  in  lying,  he 
would  probably  be  turned  out  of  his  place  at  once,  be- 
cause the  truth  is  one  of  the  first  tilings  he  owes  his 
employer.  When  "  thought  is  speech  and  speech  is 
truth  "  we  can  trust  each  other  and  join  together  with 


Tli  U  TUFULNESS.  59 

confidence  in  all  kinds  of  undertakings,  great  or  small. 
But  when  the  act  is  one  thing  and  the  word  is  another 
different  or  contrary  thing,  we  stand  apart  from  such  a 
man  in  suspicion  and  distrust,  and  we  refuse  to  work 
with  him,  since  truthfulness  is  of  the  very  essence  of 
voluntary  association  in  all  kinds  of  works. 

Our  house  of  life  must  be  built  upon  fact,  or  it  will 
fall.  AVhen  we  repeat  "  Great  is  truth  and  mighty 
above  all  things,"  we  mean  to  say  that  the  facts  of  this 
universe  are  far  stronger  than  any  mistaken  or  false  re- 
port of  them  which  any  one  may  make.  They  Avill 
come  to  the  light  at  last,  since  the  mind  of  man  is  evi- 
dently intended  to  know  the  truth,  i.  e.,  the  reality  of 
things.  Any  one,  therefore,  who  tells  us  the  truth,  in 
small  matters  or  in  large,  enables  us  so  far  to  bring  our 
life  into  harmony  with  the  laws  of  all  life  in  general 
and  of  human  life  in  society  in  particular.  He  clears 
the  way  so  that  we  can  walk  in  it,  if  we  will.  But  if 
another  human  being  deceives  us,  we  are  led  off  from 
the  right  road,  as  when  some  one  misdirects  a  traveller, 
and  he  goes  the  opposite  way  to  that  which  he  desires 
to  take,  or  in  any  other  direction  which  is  wrong  for 
him,  and  it  costs  him  much  time  and  trouble  to  find  the 
right  way. 

To  tell  the  truth  is,  then,  the  first  of  services  we 
can  render  one  another  in  the  great  association  which 
we  call  human  society.  Knowledge  must  come  before 
action.  But  as  we  can  know  from  our  own  observation 
but  a  very  small  part  of  all  that  we  need  to  know,  we 
mainly  depend  upon  others'  report  of  facts  and  events 
in  order  to  act  wisely  and  properly.  Lord  Bacon  said  : 
"  Xo  pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  standing  upon  the 
vantage  ground  of  truth."  This  is,  indeed,  the  case. 
When  we  tell  the  truth  we  are  in  harmon^^  and  union 
with  the  whole  universe  so  far ;  but  when  we  tell  a  lie 
we  leave  the  world  of  reality,  the  only  tvorld  that  is,  and 
enter  a  world  of  unreality  which  we  have,  for  a  brief 


GO  THE  LAWS   OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

time,  created,  so  to  speak,  out  of  nothing,  and  whicli  has 
only  the  substance  of  nothingness  in  it.  We  may  add  lie 
to  lie  in  order  to  make  a  consistent  story  and  gain  belief 
for  the  time.  But  the  facts  are  against  us  :  we  know 
it  ourselves.  It  is  not  as  if  we  had  simply  made  a  mis- 
take. We  have  deliberately  directed  our  fellow-beings 
wrong  on  the  way  of  life ;  we  have  given  them  incorrect 
time,  and  we  have  tried  to  raise  around  them  a  false 
world.  They  cannot  fail  to  discover  the  deception 
sometime.  Indignation,  with  a  long  loss  of  confidence ; 
constant  suspicion,  even  when  Ave  are  telling  the  truth, 
and  great  difhculty  in  all  their  dealings  with  us,  are 
the  natural  and  inevitable  results  of  such  lying. 

The  person  who  lies  gives  way  to  a  temptation  too 
strong  for  him  at  the  time.  A  boy  who  has  broken  a 
pane  of  glass  in  a  window,  while  playing  ball,  is  afraid 
that  he  will  be  punished  for  it,  and  so  he  declares,  when 
he  is  questioned  about  the  matter,  that  he  did  not  break 
it.  If  he  knew  and  realized  how  important  truthfulness 
is  as  a  constant  habit  in  all  our  relations  with  one  an- 
other, he  would  have  preferred  to  be  punished  rather 
than  tell  a  lie,  which  would  deserve  a  severer  punish- 
ment than  the  original  faidt.  According  to  the  law  of 
habit,  with  each  time  that  one  tells  a  lie  it  becomes 
easier  for  him  to  lie  again.  "With  each  time  that  he 
conquers  the  temptation  it  is  so  much  the  easier  to  tell 
the  truth  again. 

It  is  just  as  important  for  us  that  we  should  respect 
ourselves  as  that  others  should  respect  us.  The  only 
way  in  which  we  can  maintain  our  self-respect  in  this 
matter  is  by  telling  the  truth  ;  as  Chaucer's  Franklin 
says,  "  Truth  is  the  highest  thing  that  man  may  keep," 
and  when  he  keeps  it,  he  has  a  justifiable  pride  in  the 
fact  and  in  himself.  Knowing  how  hard  it  is  sometimes 
for  children  to  tell  the  exact  facts,  when  they  have  done 
wrong,  teachers  and  parents  should  always  try  to  make 
them  feel  that  an  offence  against  truthfulness  is  a  great 


Tli  U  THFULNESS.  G 1 

weakener  of  proper  self-respect  and  that  it  is  often  a 
worse  fault  than  the  original  wrong-doing. 

We  should  speak  the  whole  truth.  Often,  by  keep- 
ing back,  purposely,  some  essential  fact  or  circumstance, 
we  can  produce  an  impression  on  another  person's  mind 
directly  the  opposite  of  that  which  we  are  sure  he  would 
probably  receive  if  we  told  this  fact  or  circumstance. 
Invariably,  we  should  tell  those  who  have  a  right  to 
know  the  facts  of  a  matter  from  us,  everything  impor- 
tant that  we  know  about  it ;  then,  if  they  get  a  mistaken 
impression,  it  is  not  our  fault.  We  owe  one  another  the 
whole  truth  simply  as  members  of  the  human  society 
in  which  all  are  dependent  on  exact  knowledge  as  a  pre- 
cedent to  wise  and  right  action. 

We  should  not  tell  more  than  the  truth  by  exagger- 
ating the  facts  or  by  inventing  circumstances  to  make 
our  talk  interesting.  AVhen  the  exaggeration  is  plainly 
understood,  it  does  not  deceive.  But  we  should  not 
alloAv  ourselves  to  fall  into  a  habit  of  magnifying  things 
as  though  we  were  always  looking  through  a  microscope. 
If  a  boy  has  seen  two  dogs  fighting,  he  should  not  de- 
clare, "  Oh,  mother !  there  were  a  thousand  dogs  fight- 
ing in  front  of  our  house  this  morning."  We  should  be 
satisfied  to  report  things  as  they  have  been  or  now  are, 
neither  more  nor  less.  This  is  the  simplest  course  for 
every  one  to  take  and  to  keep. 

Duplicity,  which  is  another  name  for  falsehood  in 
action,  means  "  doubleness."  A  person  who  desires  to 
deceive  others  has  "  to  keep  up  appearances,"  as  to  cer- 
txin  matters  about  which  he  lies.  In  all  other  respects, 
he  may  be  willing  and  even  anxious  to  let  the  facts  of 
his  life  be  manifest.  Now,  to  keep  up  appearances,  to 
seem  to  be  what  one  is  not,  is  a  far  harder  thing  to  do 
than  to  live  according  to  fact,  and  let  the  appearances 
be  simply  those  of  the  facts.  Dui)licity  is  keeping  up 
two  courses  of  conduct,  side  by  side,  that  do  not  agree 
with  each  other.     We  do  not  deceive  ourselves  by  the 


62  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

lies  we  tell,  so  we  must  act  in  large  degree  as  if  these 
are  lies.  But  we  wish  to  deceive  others  by  these  false 
reports,  and  in  order  to  deceive  them  thoroughly  we  have 
to  act  as  if  we  had  spoken  the  truth.  The  farther  we 
go  in  such  a  course  of  conduct,  the  harder  it  is  likely  to 
become  ;  so  a  frank  confession  of  all  our  untruthfulness 
is,  at  last,  often  a  great  relief  to  us.  We  come  back 
with  pleasure  to  simple  fact  and  a  life  that  is  open  and 
straightforward  as  the  natural  and  right  way  of  living. 
We  have  found 

"  What  a  tangled  web  we  weave 
When  first  we  practise  to  deceive." 

We  must  throughout  life  take  home  to  ourselves  this 
lesson,  that  Truth  is  meant  for  man  and  man  is  meant 
for  Truth.  Language  is  our  natural  means  for  telling 
facts  to  one  another,  so  that  we  may  know  the  real  world 
in  which  we  actually  live,  and  do  wisely,  kindly,  and 
rightly  in  it.  We  must  obey  the  laws  of  nature ;  we 
must  control  our  actions  so  as  to  make  them  accord  with 
these  laws ;  but  the  most  fundamental  duty  of  men  in 
all  their  dealings  with  one  another  is  to  represent  things 
as  they  are,  in  nature,  in  society,  in  life.  Truth  is  the 
first  necessity  of  wise  living,  and  out  of  truth  comes 
the  only  beauty  that  is  permanent.  The  good  rests  upon 
the  true.  All  this  means  that  we  should  recognize  the 
facts  and  laws  of  our  human  existence  and  represent 
them  to  others  as  they  are,  as  the  only  sure  and  lasting 
foundation  for  a  good  and  happy  life. 


NOTES. 


The  teacher  will  find  some  help,  in  treating  the  duty  of  ve- 
racity, in  the  sections  or  chapters  of  most  of  the  standard  books 
on  ethics  which  pay  attention  to  practice  in  any  degree.  Among 
the  older  works,  Paley's  Aloral  arid  Political  Philosophy  has  rarely 
been  surpassed  for  its  concrete  and  sagacious  treatment  of  prac- 


TRUTHFULNESS.  63 

tical  morals  :  the  chapter  on  Lies  (Book  III.  chap,  xv.)  is  inter- 
estinsr.  Other  works  which  jiive  matter  of  value  in  this  direction 
are  Professor  Noah  Porter's  Elements  of  Moral  Science  (Part  II. 
chap.  X.  p.  41G)  ;  John  Bascom's  Science  of  Duty,  pp.  158-1  GO  ; 
Mark  Hopkins's  Law  of  Love  (on  the  "  right  to  trutli  "),  pp.  li)9- 
201  ;  A.  Bierbower's  The  Virtues  and  their  Reasons  ;  and  Paul 
Janet's  Elements  of  Morals,  translated  by  Mrs.  C.  R.  Corson. 

As  a  specimen  of  illustrative  reading,  take  this  from  S.  Smiles's 
Character  (p.  214  ;  the  chapter  on  Duty-Truthfulness)  concern- 
ing the  great  educator,  Thomas  Arnold  of  Rugby.  "  There  was 
no  virtue  that  Dr.  Arnold  labored  more  sedulously  to  instil  into 
young  men  than  the  virtue  of  truthfulness,  as  being  the  manliest 
of  virtues,  as  indeed  the  very  basis  of  all  true  manliness.  He 
designated  truthfulness  as  '  moral  transparency,'  and  he  valued 
it  more  highly  than  any  other  quality.  When  lying  was  de- 
tected, he  treated  it  as  a  great  moral  offenc.e  ;  but  when  a  pupil 
made  an  assertion,  he  accepted  it  with  confidence.  '  If  you  say 
so,  that  is  quite  enough  ;  of  course,  I  believe  your  word.'  By 
thus  trusting  and  believing  them,  he  educated  the  young  in  truth- 
fulness ;  the  boys  at  length  coming  to  say  to  one  another  :  '  It 's 
a  shame  to  tell  Arnold  a  lie,  —  he  always  believes  one.'  "  {Life 
of  Arnold,  i.  94.) 

There  is  an  apposite  story  of  Arthur  Bonnicastle  in  Dr.  J.  G. 
Holland's  novel  of  that  name  (p.  88).  The  story  of  Washing- 
ton and  the  cherry  tree  belongs  to  myth,  not  to  history,  as  one 
may  see  in  Lodge's  Life  of  Washington  (American  Statesmen 
Series)  ;  avoid  it,  as  much  as  the  myth  of  William  Tell  in  teach- 
ing patriotism.  Books  of  the  style  of  Miss  C.  M.  Yonge's 
Golden  Deeds,  Mr.  S.  Smiles's  Character  and  Self-Help,  and 
William  Matthew's  Getting  on  in  the  World,  will  afford  pertinent 
anecdotes  and  stories  of  truth-telling  and  its  opposite. 

As  to  the  causes  of  lying  by  children,  the  following  points  are 
useful,  from  an  instructive  paper  by  President  G.  Stanley  Hall 
of  Clark  University.  Aided  by  a  number  of  teachers,  he  col- 
lected very  many  data  as  to  the  character  of  children's  lies  and 
the  occasion  of  their  development.  He  finds,  that  with  children, 
as  with  primitive  people,  the  enormity  of  tlie  lie  depends  largely 
upon  whom  it  is  told  to.  A  great  many  children  have  persisted 
in  lies  until  asked,  "Would  you  tell  that  to  your  mother?" 
Then  they  have  confessed  the  falsehood.  A  lie  to  a  teacher  who 
is  liked  stands  upon  an  entirely  different  moral  basis  from  a  lie 


64  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

to  a  teacher  who  is  not  liked.  Lies  to  help  people  are  generally 
applauded  by  children.  One  teacher  reported  to  President  Hall 
that  she  had  been  considerably  saddened  because  her  class  of 
thirteen-year-old  children  would  not  apply  the  term  "  lie  "  to  the 
action  of  the  French  girl  who,  when  on  her  way  to  execution,  in 
the  days  of  the  Commune,  met  her  betrothed,  and,  to  save  him 
from  supposed  complicity,  responded  to  his  agonized  appeals, 
"  Sir,  I  never  knew  you."  To  the  minds  of  the  children  the 
falsehood  was  glorified  by  the  love. 

President  Hall  sensibly  recognizes  that  a  great  many  chil- 
dren's lies  spring  from  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  healthful  of 
mental  instincts.  Children  live  in  their  imagination.  The  finest 
geniuses  have  shown  this  "  play  instinct  "  most  strongly.  The 
children  who  have  this  type  of  imagination  most  strongly  devel- 
oped are  often  the  dullest  at  schools. 

Exaggeration  is  a  mild  species  of  ofPence  against  truth,  but 
children  may  be  taught  to  respect  things  as  they  are  ;  they 
should  certainly  be  taught  that  it  requires  more  care  and  thought 
to  relate  an  event  just  as  it  happened,  and  that  such  an«,ccount 
is  more  creditable  to  them,  than  to  indulge  in  exaggeration  of 
any  kind.  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  says  :  "  I  often  tell  Mrs. 
Professor  that  one  of  her  '  I  think  it  is  so's '  is  worth  a  dozen  of 
anotlier  person's  *!  know  it  is  so's.' "  We  should  not  exaggerate 
the  degree  of  certainty  in  our  own  minds  concerning  what  we  say 
or  believe  ;  there  is  such  a  very  good  thing  as  "the  rhetoric  of 
understatement."  Truth  is  stranger  than  fiction,  and  if  held  to 
consistently,  it  will  yield  more  variety  and  charm.  If  a  child  is 
evidently  imaginative  the  teacher  should  be  especially  careful  to 
keep  it  to  the  real  world  (outside  of  its  games  and  story-telling, 
understood  to  be  such),  which  it  should  be  taught  to  respect 
and  distinguish  as  the  world  we  have  to  live  in,  where  we  need 
veracity  more  than  imagination. 

Fear  is  another  great  cause  of  lying  with  children,  when  they 
have  committed  some  offence.  The  parent  or  the  teacher  should 
not  offer  to  remit  the  proper  punishment  for  this  offence  in  case 
the  child  will  tell  the  truth  ;  but  he  should,  as  a  rule,  make  the 
punishment  more  severe  for  the  lie  than  for  the  original  trans- 
gression, and  the  two  penalties  should  be  kept  distinct.  The 
teacher  may  well  say  :  "  If  you  did  such  and  such  a  wrong  thing, 
I  shall  have  to  punish  you  for  it,  even  if  you  tell  me  frankly 
that  you  did  it  ;  but  if  you  lie  about  it  I  will  give  you  a  harder 


NOTES.  65 

punishment,  m  addition,  because  of  the  lie."  But  the  tempta- 
tion to  lying-  should  be  made  as  slight  as  possible  by  the  teacher. 

Appeal  to  the  sense  of  honor,  as  in  Dr.  Arnold's  case,  and  to  the 
feeling  of  self-respect  ;  show  that  duplicity  (doubleness)  is  a  hard 
part  to  play,  that  the  liar  "  should  have  a  good  memoi-y,"  as  one 
lie  breeds  others  which  must  be  told,  to  be  consistent,  and  all  of 
these  must  be  remembered  ;  that  the  facts  are  all  the  time 
troubling,  and  will  finally  triumph  over,  the  liar,  who  gets  hito 
worse  and  worse  difficulties  continually,  while  he  who  is  plainly 
telling  the  truth  all  the  time  has  no  such  difficulties. 

The  loss  of  confidence  which  a  lie,  suspected  or  detected, 
brinjrs  about  should  be  brought  home  to  the  child  who  has  told 
an  untruth,  by  declining  to  believe  him  the  next  time  he  makes 
an  assertion  at  all  doubtful,  and  telling  him  the  reason  why  you 
must,  inevitably,  so  do  ;  ask  him  how  he  likes  the  feeling  of 
havinsT  his  word  doubted,  how  he  felt  when  he  has  been  deceived 
himself  ("  put  yourself  in  his  place  ")  and  how  he  felt  when  he 
saw  he  had  deceived  a  person  to  whom  he  owed  the  truth  in 
proper  gratitude  and  honor.  Be  sure  to  give  all  due  weight  to 
the  intention  of  the  child  in  telling  a  falsehood,  if  you  can  get  at 
it  ;  anything  else  than  a  plain  intention  to  deceive  should  make 
him  a  subject  of  enlightenment  rather  than  of  punishment.  But 
casuistry  should  be  avoided  in  the  general  talks  to  children. 
There  is  little  profit  in  discussing  with  them  the  question  if  one 
may  properly  tell  a  lie  to  a  drunkard  or  an  insane  person,  or  in 
order  to  save  life.  Such  debate  should  be  left  to  older  persons 
who  will  not  be  so  apt  to  become  confused  in  their  minds. 
Nature  will  teach  a  person  what  to  do  in  such  a  ease  better  than 
any  amount  of  discussion. 

Remember  how  many  a  child  that  shamelessly  reproduced  the 
immorality  of  a  savage  or  barbarian  in  its  frequent  lies  has  be- 
come thoroughly  truthful  when  grown  up  ;  the  lively,  mendacious 
Greek  is  thus  often  outgrown  in  time,  and  the  truth-loving 
Teuton  emerges  and  remains. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  LAW  OF  JUSTICE. 

As  we  all  live  under  tlie  moral  law,  each  of  us  lias  a 
right  to  the  protection  of  that  law.  The  moral  law  is 
written  down  in  part  in  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  we 
see  in  every  civilized  country  what  are  called  "  courts 
of  justice."  If  any  man  thinks  that  he  has  been 
wronged  by  another  who  has  taken  away  his  property, 
he  "  goes  to  law,"  as  we  say,  about  it.  The  case  is  tried 
before  a  judge  and  a  jury.  The  judge  tells  the  jury 
what  the  law  of  the  land  bearing  on  the  suit  is,  and  the 
jury  decides  upon  the  facts  of  the  case,  whether  it  comes 
under  the  law  or  not.  This  is  one  way  of  getting  jus- 
tice done.  There  are  many  laws  about  property  and 
other  rights  ;  there  are  many  judges  and  lawyers  and 
legislators,  making  or  discussing  or  determining  the 
written  law.  The  object  of  all  these  arrangements  and 
institutions  is  that  every  man  may  have  his  ov/n,  that 
which  properly  belongs  to  him. 

As  we  all  very  well  know,  a  large  part  of  the  moral 
law  is  not  written  down  in  the  statute-book  and  is  not 
executed  by  the  courts,  but  is  left  to  public  opinion  or 
to  private  persons  to  enforce,  because  it  can  be  enforced 
in  this  way  better  than  by  the  judges.  However  it  is 
applied,  justice  always  means  giving  every  person  his 
due ;  L  e.,  what  others  owe  him  because  he  is  a  human 
being  in  society.  Speaking  generally,  he  himself  owes 
the  same  things  to  other  people  as  they  owe  to  him, 
since  all  human  beings  are  very  much  alike.  What  he 
calls  his  "  rights  "  are  the  "  duties  "  of  others  to  him, 
and  their  "  rights  "  measure  his  "  duties  "  to  them. 


THE  LA  W  OF  JUSTICE.  67 

We  must  rule  out,  at  once,  from  all  our  thoughts  of 
moral  law,  the  notion  that  we  ourselves  have  more 
rights  than  other  persons  have,  or  that  we  have  fewer 
duties.  One  and  the  same  great  law  of  human  life  is 
over  us  all ;  it  makes  our  duties  equal  to  our  rights. 
In  the  great  whole  of  human  society,  each  person  is  a 
part.  The  whole  has  duties  to  each  part :  each  part 
has  duties  to  all  the  other  parts  and  to  the  whole.  This 
is  the  universal  law  for  entire  mankind.  Practice  of 
the  obedience  and  the  self-control  of  which  we  have 
had  so  much  to  say  results  in  justice  to  all  men.  "  The 
just "  is  the  fair  and  due  part  of  each  and  every  person. 

Meum  et  tuum  :  we  know  what  this  Latin  phrase 
means,  "  mine  and  thine  ;  "  the  law  of  mine  and  thine 
is  that  you  shall  have  what  belongs  to  you,  no  more 
and  no  less,  and  that  I  shall  have  what  belongs  to  me, 
no  more  and  no  less.  Honesty  is  a  very  important 
part  of  justice,  and  honesty  is  respect  for  the  property 
of  others.  To  take  wdiat  is  another's  property,  know- 
ingly, is  to  work  injustice.  We  may  do  this  by  vio- 
lence, while  he  protests  or  tries  to  prevent  us.  In  this 
case  we  are  setting  the  law  of  the  land  openly  at  defi- 
ance, and  the  policeman  or  the  constable  or  the  sheriff 
will  come  and  arrest  us.  We  shall  be  taken  before  the 
court,  and  if  we  are  proved  to  be  guilty,  we  shall  be 
severely  punished,  because  it  is  for  the  interest  of  all 
men  that  the  rights  of  property  should  be  respected,  and 
because  private  violence  is  contrary  to  all  law  except 
the  rude  law  of  the  strongest,  under  which  savages  live. 
Reason  and  right  cannot  prevail  unless  violence  be 
punished. 

But  if  we  take  away  another  person's  property  with- 
out his  knowledge,  —  this  we  call  "  stealing,"  —  we  are 
also  breaking  the  great  law  of  ineirm  et  tiami,  and  it  is 
none  the  less  wrong  if  we  are  not  found  out  and  pun- 
ished. People  often  dispute  about  property,  different 
persons  thinking  that  they  have  a  clear  right  to  the 


68  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

ownership  of  tlie  same  thing,  —  a  house,  let  us  say,  or 
a  piece  of  land.  In  such  a  case  they  should  let  the 
courts,  or  some  other  competent  authority,  decide  for 
them,  and  both  parties  should  respect  the  decision  after- 
wards. But  Avhen  we  know  that  a  thing  does  7iot  be- 
long to  us,  we  owe  it  not  only  to  the  person  who  owns 
the  property,  but  also  to  the  whole  community  in  which 
we  live,  to  regard  his  right,  and  we  should  not  try  to 
cheat  or  defraud  him  of  it,  any  more  than  we  should 
take  it  away  from  him  by  force.  There  is  enough  in 
the  world  for  all,  if  each  will  take  only  his  part.  So 
mankind  thinks,  and  tries,  therefore,  to  set  up  "  even- 
handed  justice,"  as  Shakespeare  calls  it.  Enjoy  what 
is  your  own,  and  let  others  enjoy  their  own.  Such  a 
rule  would  keep  us  from  robbery  or  theft  of  any  kind. 
If  we  are  just  to  others,  again,  we  shall  not  take  or  keep 
back  any  part  of  what  belongs  to  them  since  they  have 
paid  for  it.  The  grocer  must  weigh  out  sixteen  ounces 
to  the  pound,  as  he  is  paid  for  the  pound ;  the  dry -goods 
clerk  should  give  thirty-six  inches  to  the  yard,  for 
otherwise  he  is  keeping  back  what  is  another's. 

Jvistice  is  opposed  to  par-t  la  lit!/  or  favoritism,  as  well; 
this  means  giving  to  one  person  more  than  his  share, 
as  when  a  teacher  is  kind  to  one  scholar  and  severe  to 
another,  both  being  equally  deserving.  All  the  pupils 
in  the  school  have  a  right  to  the  teacher's  care  and  help, 
just  as  the  teacher  has  a  right  to  obedience  and  atten- 
tion from  all  the  scholars  alike.  The  upright  judge  in 
the  court  room  makes  no  distinction  in  his  rulings  be- 
cause one  man  is  rich  and  another  man  is  poor,  or 
because  one  is  white  and  the  other  is  black.  He  is  no 
"  respecter  of  persons  "  :  it  is  his  duty  to  apply  princi- 
ples to  cases  and  not  to  let  his  personal  likings  or  dis- 
likings  influence  his  action. 

The  old  Romans  represented  the  goddess  of  justice 
by  the  statue  of  a  woman  blindfolded,  holding  a  pair 
of  scales  in  one  hand  and  a  sword  in  the  other.     The 


THE  LAW  OF  JUSTICE.  G9 

bandage  indicated,  that  the  just  man  should  be  blind  to 
e^ery  consideration  which  would  lead  him  to  favor  one 
person  at  the  expense  of  another.  The  scales  showed 
that  the  just  man  weighs  out  his  part  to  each,  that  he 
may  be  fair  to  all.  In  our  homes  we  should  all  weigh 
in  ouv  minds  the  parts  we  owe  to  father  and  mother,  to 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  to  other  relatives  there,  and 
give  them  freely  and  heartily,  full  measure  and  ample 
weight.  So  at  school,  so  on  the  street,  so  in  business 
and  so  in  all  our  relations  with  other  human  beings, 
we  should  be  just,  first  of  all.  In  order  to  do  justly  we 
have  to  recognize  the  truths  we  have  thus  far  been 
learning :  that  we  are  all  under  one  law  ;  that  we  all  owe 
it  obedience  ;  that  we  all  ought  to  control  our  selfish 
dispositions,  which  tend  to  become  the  very  opposite  of 
reason  and  justice  ;  and  that  we  all  owe  one  another  the 
whole  truth.  As  Ave  go  along  further  in  our  study  of 
morality,  we  shall  see  that  very  much  more  of  right 
conduct  might  be  included  under  the  name  of  justice  : 
even  kindness  might  be  called  a  part  of  it.  But  let  us 
think  of  it  now  as  the  giving  his  fair  and  equal  part  to 
every  person,  whether  he  is  near  enough  to  us  for  us 
also  to  be  kind,  or  not. 

As  each  human  being  is  a  member  of  society,  each 
has  a  just  claim  to  his  fair  part  of  the  good  things  of 
the  world.  What  we  call  "  self  "  has  its  rights  as  well 
as  its  duties,  and  it  is  not  "  selfishness  "  for  any  one  to 
desire  to  have  that  which  in  reason  belongs  to  him. 
''  Selfishness "  means  asking  or  taking  too  much, 
more  than  one's  proper  share.  We  need  a  word  to  sig- 
nify without  any  shade  of  blame  the  existence  and 
action  of  the  self,  that  is,  of  each  individual  person,  in 
its  right  and  reasonable  degree.  Such  a  word,  as  has 
been  said  in  a  previous  cha]iter,  is  the  old  English  term 
"  selfhood."  Like  boyhood,  manhood,  womanhood,  and 
other  similar  words,  it  means  simply  the  natural  condi- 
tion of  each  human  being,  existing  as  a  person  of  the 


70  TEE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

first  and  nearest  importance  in  his  own  eyes.  Nature 
has  given  him  consciousness  of  himself,  and  he  call 
never  take  the  same  attitude  toward  himself  as  he  holds 
toward  every  other  human  being.  He  views  his  self 
from  within,  but  all  other  persons  he  sees,  and  must 
see,  from  without.  The  preservation  of  this  self  from 
danger  or  disease  or  death,  and  the  maintenance  of  it  in 
health  and  comfort  are,  by  a  law  of  nature,  peculiarly 
the  business  of  each  one  of  us,  more  especially  when  we 
have  reached  our  full  size  and  strength.  Each  person 
can,  on  the  whole,  provide  for  himself  better  than  others 
can  provide  for  him.  Self-help  is  thoroughly  natural, 
and  it  is  usually  the  best  kind  of  help.  The  devel- 
opment of  all  one's  powers  of  body  and  mind  is  pecul- 
iarly one's  own  duty  and  privilege.  There  is  nothing 
selfish  or  wrong  in  any  one's  asking  for  what  is,  reason- 
ably, his  share. 

We  become  selfish,  i.  e.,  we  carry  our  natural  liking 
for  ourselves  too  far,  when  we  take  away  from  others, 
directly  or  indirectly,  what  is  theirs,  to  make  it,  wrong- 
fully, our  own  property.  As  we  all  know,  selfishness, 
the  claiming  or  taking  too  much,  is  the  most  common 
form  of  all  wrong-doing.  It  might  be  said  that  it  is 
even  the  foundation  or  source  of  almost  all  wrong- 
doing. When  we  think  very  highly  of  our  own  merits 
and  very  little  of  the  rights  of  others,  we  really  act  as 
if  human  society  revolved  around  us  as  its  centre ;  we 
are  virtually  claiming  that  we  cannot  have  too  much,  or 
others  too  little,  the  main  matter  being  that  we  shall  be 
satisfied.  This  is  making  the  same  kind  of  mistake 
that  men  used  to  make  when  they  imagined  that  the 
sun  and  the  planets  and  all  the  stars  of  heaven  revolved 
around  this  little  earth  of  ours  as  their  centre.  It  was 
not  so ;  it  is  not  so,  and  it  cannot  he  made  to  he  so  by  any 
amount  of  talking  or  doing  on  our  part.  So  when  any 
man  or  woman,  or  boy  or  girl,  acts  as  if  the  whole  fam- 
ily, or  the  whole  school,  or  the  whole  neighborhood,  or 


THE  LAW  OF  JUSTICE.  71 

town  or  city  or  state  or  nation  revolves,  or  should  re- 
volve, around  his  or  her  own  convenience  or  comfort  or 
happiness,  the  same  great  mistake  is  made.  All  these 
associations  of  human  beings  are  intended  for  the  good 
of  each  and  all  together  ;  every  individual  in  any  one 
of  them  must  consult  the  welfare  of  all  the  others,  as 
well  as  of  himself,  if  the  association  is  to  continue  in 
its  natural  and  proper  form,  and  if  each  is  to  receive 
from  it  the  greatest  degree  of  aid  and  comfort. 

The  rule  of  justice,  then,  is,  To  each  man  his  part. 
The  way  to  bring  this  about  is  to  act,  in  the  first  place, 
reasonably,  to  have  a  moderate  and  sensible  notion  of  our 
own  merits,  to  remember  that  each  of  us  is  only  one  of 
many,  that  each,  indeed,  is  very  important  to  himself, 
bvit  that  all  these  different  selves  are  to  live  together  in 
a  common  society  under  one  and  the  same  moral  law. 
So  apt  are  we  all  to  exaggerate  our  own  personal  merits, 
so  very  apt  to  take  more  than  what  in  reason  belongs 
to  us,  that  it  becomes  a  necessity  for  us  to  make  a  con- 
stant allowance  for  this  disposition.  Very  few  persons, 
indeed,  are  likely  to  decide  impartially  in  a  case  where 
their  own  interests  are  involved.  Hence,  it  is  a  matter 
of  the  highest  importance  for  us  to  realize  our  compara- 
tive inability  to  judge  ourselves  correctly.  Our  one  re- 
source, if  we  must  decide  ourselves,  is  to  try  to  obey 
the  maxim.  Put  yourself  in  his  place.  When  we 
have  a  dispute  Avith  another,  or  when  it  is  a  matter  con- 
cerning meum  et  Umm.,  our  safest,  surest  way  is  to  obey 
the  Golden  Kule  of  conduct,  "  Do  unto  others  as  ye 
would  that  others  should  do  unto  you." 

Practically,  this  is  the  most  important  of  all  rules  for 
governing  our  actions,  because  we  are  strongly  inclined 
by  natu.re  to  think  of  ourselves  more  highly  than  we 
ought  to  think,  in  reason.  But  if  we  once  put  ourselves, 
in  imagination,  in  the  other  person's  place,  and  ask  our- 
selves how  we  should  then  like  to  have  him  do  to  iis  as 
we  were  purposing  to  do  to  him,  we  get  a  new  light  on 


72  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

the  matter.  It  becomes  plain  to  us,  very  often,  that  we 
should  not  at  all  like  to  be  treated,  so  by  any  one,  and 
should  consider  such  treatment  unreasonable  and  un- 
fair. If,  then,  it  would  be  so  for  us,  why  should  it  not 
be  so  for  him  ?  The  action  remains  the  same,  the  dif- 
ference being  only  that  the  one  who  does  the  wrong 
and  the  one  who  suffers  the  wrong  have  changed  places. 
Many  persons  declare,  by  their  practice,  that  they  hold 
the  view  of  the  African  chief  who  was  asked  the  differ- 
ence between  right  and  wrong  :  "  Eight,"  he  answered, 
"  is  when  I  take  away  my  neighbor's  cattle ;  wrong  is 
when  he  takes  away  mine  ! "  But  this,  of  course,  is  the 
very  height  of  unreason  :  it  amounts  to  denying  that 
there  is  one  and  the  same  law  binding  upon  all  men 
alike,  which  makes  stealing  or  robbery  wrong  because 
it  is  an  offence  against  the  social  life. 

Justice  and  selfishness,  therefore,  are  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  action.  The  just  man  obeys  the  social,  moral 
law ;  the  selfish  man  sets  up  his  own  will  or  pleasure  as 
the  only  law  that  he  wishes  to  obey.  Liberty,  the  self- 
ish person  thinks,  is  liberty  to  do  as  he  pleases  and  take 
all  he  likes ;  but  he  is  very  much  mistaken.  The  real 
freedom  for  all  men  is  liberty  to  act  according  to  the 
Golden  Rule.  "  Look  out  for  number  one  "  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  selfish  man  ;  by  "  number  one  "  he  means 
himself.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  he  "  number 
one  "  in  respect  to  other  matters  than  his  relations  to 
his  fellow-men  ?  Was  the  sun  made  for  him  ?  Will 
the  rain  come  at  his  convenience  ?  Can  he  be  idle  and 
yet  have  all  the  rewards  of  industry  ?  Can  he  disre- 
gard any  other  law  than  the  moral  law  with  safety  and 
profit  to  himself  ?  He  surely  cannot  so  do.  He  is  no 
more  "  number  one  "  before  the  moral  law  than  he  is 
before  physical  law.  Moral  law  is  law  for  the  exist- 
ence and  preservation  and  progress  of  human  society, 
including  all  its  individual  members.  Society  is 
number  one,  and  the  moral  law  leaves  no  individual 


THE  LAW  OF  JUSTICE.  73 

exempt  from  its  equal  operation  and  application.  Hon- 
esty is  "  the  best  policy,"  therefore,  because  it  is  in 
harmony  with  the  law  of  justice  that  includes  all  men 
without  an  exception. 

We  are  obliged  to  balance  self  and  others  in  very 
many  of  our  moral  judgments  and  actions.  We  may  be 
very  sure  that  the  two  parties  are  meant  by  nature  to 
work  together  in  harmony  for  the  welfare  of  all.  We 
have  instincts  of  justice  as  well  as  instincts  of  selfish- 
ness. Through  our  faculty  of  reason  and  our  power  of 
self-control,  we  can  bring  ourselves  and  others  to  a  true 
selfhood  which  is  just  to  all.  Living  in  it  we 
should  be  true  to  our  own  selves  and  false  to  no  man. 
But  to  reach  this  end  we  need  to  think  upon  justice 
first.  Self  will  probably  assert  itself  fully  enough, 
with  most  of  us,  without  encouragement.  When  we 
think  earnestly  about  our  duties,  to  do  them,  other 
men  will  usually  be  quite  ready  to  give  us  our  rights 
with  pleasure.  But  if  we  ai-e  very  clamorous  about 
"  our  rights,"  they  will  probably  ask  us  first  if  we  have 
discharged  our  own  part.  Not  England  alone,  but  all 
mankind  "  expects  that  every  man  will  do  his  duty." 
A  man  who  attends  to  all  his  duties  will  not  talk  pro- 
fusely about  his  rights. 


NOTES. 


"Justice  satisfies  everybody,  and  justice  alone,"  says  Emer- 
son. No  word  is  more  common  to-day  than  "rights."  See,  for 
example,  Herbert  Spencer's  Justice,  with  its  chapters  on  the 
rights  of  women  and  children.  But  "  duties  "  are,  on  the  whole, 
much  more  profitable  things  to  consider.  Under  justice  comes 
honesty  in  all  our  dealings,  as  opposed  to  cheating,  defrauding, 
stealing,  adulteration  of  goods,  and  scamping  work;  the  keeping 
of  promises  ("  who  sweareth  to  his  liurt  and  changeth  not ");  re- 
gard for  the  reputation  of  otliers;  fair  methods  of  making  money 
fread  J.  Wolcott's  poem,  The  Razor-Seller^,  and  a  hundred  other 


74  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

topics.  "  Fair  play "  is  an  important  aspect  of  justice  easily- 
brought  into  the  view  of  boys  and  girls  in  school.  Justice  rests 
finally  on  the  idea  of  equality,  that  all  men  have  certain  great 
rights  as  men,  owed  them  by  all  other  men  as  duties.  "  A  man  's 
a  man  for  a'  that."  Justice  is  the  law  of  the  business  world, 
where  kindness  is  not  often  mentioned.  See  Dole's  American 
Citizen,  part  third,  on  "  economic  duties,  or  the  rights  and  duties 
of  business  and  money."  "  The  most  enviable  of  all  titles," 
said  Washington,  —  "  the  character  of  '  an  honest  man.'  "  "  Jus- 
tice," said  Aristotle,  "more  beautiful  than  the  morning  or  the 
evening  star." 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

THE  LAW  OF  KINDNESS. 

In  considering  the  full  meaning  of  justice  we  have 
said  that  it  might  be  so  defined  at  last  as  to  make  it  in- 
clude kindness,  and  we  came  to  the  Golden  Rule  as  its 
best  expression.  But  still  it  Avill  probably  seem  to 
many  that,  so  far,  we  have  been  making  morality  stern 
and  forbidding,  since  we  have  had  so  much  to  say  about 
law  and  obedience,  —  joyless  words,  most  often  !  We 
have  taken  this  course  deliberately,  however,  in  order 
to  think  and  reason  clearly  about  this  most  important 
matter,  —  our  conduct.  But  we  should  be  omitting  the 
view  of  conduct  which  changes  its  whole  aspect,  if  we 
left  out  kindness.  Justice  we  commonly  regard  as 
based  upon  deliberate  thought,  and  we  often  say  that 
one  must  not  let  his  "  feelings  bias  his  judgment  "  on  a 
question  of  right  and  wrong.  Yet  a  very  great  portion 
of  our  life  is  the  life  of  feeling.  While  we  should  not 
try  to  distinguish  feeling  and  thought  too  closely,  each 
has  its  large  place. 

In  all  our  conduct  feeling  has  a  great  part  to  play. 
AVe  only  need  to  be  sure  that  the  feeling  is  rightly  di- 
rected and  not  immoderate  in  its  degree.  This  being 
so,  the  more  strongly  we/ee/  in  matters  of  conduct  tJie 
better,  for  feeling  is  the  powerful  force  that  makes 
action  easy.  If  we  "  think  clear  and  feel  deep  "  we 
shall  be  most  likely  to  ''  bear  fruit  well,"  and  this  is 
what  every  ''  friend  of  man  desires."  Now  kindness 
is  the  word  that  stands  preeminently  for  good  feeling. 
In  many  of  its  uses  it  means  as  much  or  nearly  as  much 


7G  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

as  Love,  and  Love  is  the  word  that  marks  the  strong- 
est possible  feeling  of  personal  attachment.  We  shall 
use  the  word  Kindness  in  preference  to  Love  in  speak- 
ing of  acts  and  feelings  which  concern  many  persons, 
because  Love  is,  strictly,  an  intensely  attractive  feeling 
in  persons  very  near  each  other,  such  as  members  of 
one  family,  intimate  friends,  or  men  and  women  who 
are  "  in  love  "  with  each  other,  as  we  say.  The  deep 
sympathy  we  call  "  love  "  continues  strong  while  it  is 
confined  to  a  few  as  its  object ;  but  if  we  try  to  extend 
it  to  many  persons  it  necessarily  loses  its  intensity. 
As  we  are  now  considering  feelings  which  are  to  be 
entertained  toward  the  many,  not  toward  the  few,  it  is 
well  to  say  "kindness,"  and  reserve  "love"  for  the 
highest  degree  of  affection.  We  will  speak  then  of 
"  the  law  of  kindness,"  rather  than  of  "  the  law  of 
love,"  for  the  present. 

We  all  know  that  persons  may,  not  rarely,  deserve 
to  be  called  just,  and  not  deserve  to  be  called  kind.  We 
often  say  that  we  respect  a  certain  man  because  he  does 
right  habitually,  but  that  we  are  not  "  attracted "  to 
him.  His  conduct  seems  to  us  reasonable  and  just;  but 
it  lacks  that  element  of  grace  and  charm  which  we 
imply  when  we  say  that  another  person  is  thoroughly 
kind  —  "  kind-hearted  "  we  generally  phrase  it,  making 
an  implied  distinction  between  the  "  heart "  and  the 
"  head."  We  must  be  very  careful  not  to  press  this 
distinction  too  far,  and  make  too  much  of  it,  for  head 
and  heart,  not  only  literally  but  in  this  figurative  use  as 
well,  are  necessary  parts  of  the  same  person  ;  they  are 
not  always  or  often  to  be  set  in  sharp  opposition.  But 
there  is  a  difference,  plain  to  see,  between  good  conduct 
that  is  simply  just  and  good  conduct  that  has  "  heart  in 
it,"  /.  e.,  is  also  "  kind."  Keal  kindness  is  not  opposed  to 
justice,  but  is  above  it  as  a  superior  degree  in  right  con- 
duct. There  is  in  kindness  a  notion  of  "wholeness, 
immediateness  and  inspiration,  which  are  more  pleas- 


THE  LA  W  OF  KINDNESS.  77 

ing  and  winning  tlian  the  most  careful,  well  calculated 
and  deliberate  justice  can  be  by  itself. 

Kindness,  in  fact,  is  the  ideal  of  conduct  toward 
the  great  body  of  our  fellow-creatures,  ^^'e  have  said 
in  the  last  chapter  that  mankind  has  a  natural  instinct 
to  be  just,  as  well  as  an  innate  disposition  to  be  selfish. 
It  is  also  true,  and  a  very  important  thing  it  is  to  bear 
in  mind,  that  human  nature  lias  another  instinct,  to  be 
kind.  Sympathy  (I.  e.,  feeling  with  another,  especially 
in  his  troubles)  is  precisely  as  natural  to  man  as  self- 
ishness ;  sympathy  is  but  another  name  for  kindness. 
Selfhood  and  sympathy  —  feeling  for  one's  self  and  feel- 
ing with  and  for  others  —  are  the  two  poles  on  which 
the  world  of  personal  conduct  revolves.  Each  feeling 
is  good  and  right  in  itself.  The  practical  matter  al- 
ways is  to  keep  each  in  its  proper  place  and  confine  it 
to  its  right  degree. 

It  may  help  us  a  little,  at  this  critical  point,  to  be  just 
to  self  and  to  others  if  we  consider  closely  the  several 
meanings  of  the  words  "  kind "  and  "  kindness."  ^ 
"  Kind "  as  a  noun  means  (this  is  the  original  use  of 
the  word)  the  species,  or  class,  to  which  a.  being  be- 
longs, as  in  the  phrase  "  cattle  after  their  kind."  There 
are  kinds  of  plants  and  kinds  of  animals.  Among  ani- 
mal beings,  we  belong  to  mankind.  Each  species  or  class 
has  its  peculiar  nature,  by  reason  of  which  we  are  led 
to  call  it  a  separate  kind.  This  nature  is,  to  all  belong- 
ing to  this  kind,  a  necessary  law  of  their  action  ;  they 
simply  must  act  according  to  their  kind.  "  They  fol- 
low the  law  of  their  kind,"  we  say  of  all  living  animals. 
In  connection  with  this  nature  we  also  use  the  words 
native  propensity,  disposition,  character ;  these  are  all 
"  natural,"  if  they  are  involved  in  the  "  kind."  It  is 
the  disposition  of  the  tigress,  for  instance,  to  be  cruel 

^  The  teacher  will  observe  that  elsewhere  I  have  preferred  to  dis- 
cuss in  the  notes  the  matter  of  etymologies  —  so  interesting  and  im- 
portant in  ethical  reasoning  —  or  to  leave  it  untouched. 


78  TUE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

to  all  animals  but  lier  own  young  :  to  them  slie  is  affec- 
tionate. Equally  it  is  the  character  ux  the  dog  to  be 
fond  of  his  master,  and  faithful  to  him.^  So  men 'and 
women  have  a  certain  general  disposition  or  character 
because  they  all  belong  to  mankind.  For  instance,  you 
are  "  led  by  kind  to  admire  your  fellow-creature,"  says 
Dry  den. 

The  first  use  of  "  kind "  as  an  adjective  follows  di- 
rectly from  these  meanings  which  we  have  been  mention- 
ing. Whatever  is  "  characteristic,"  i.  e.,  is  a  mark,  of  a 
species,  whatever  belongs  to  its  nature,  is  natural  or 
native  to  it,  is  therefore  '*  kind  "  to  it,  in  this  primitive 
sense.  ("  Kind "  and  "  kin,"  we  have  to  remember, 
are  etymologically  the  same  word  ;  "  kin  "  or  "  akin," 
and  "  kind,"  in  this  present  sense,  mean  just  the  same.) 
"  The  kind  taste  "  of  an  apple  is  the  taste  natural  to  an 
apple.  The  hay  "  kindest  for  sheep "  is  the  hay  that 
suits  best  their  taste.  "Kindly"  is  another  form  of 
"kind."  "The  kindly  fruits  of  the  earth"  are  the 
fruits  which  the  earth  naturally  produces,  i  e.,  after  its 
kind.  ISText  "  kind  "  comes  to  mean  especially,  in  the 
case  of  human  beings,  havbirj  the  feelings  that  are  com- 
mon and  natural  to  the  kind,  the  feelings  which  indi- 
cate, as  well  as  stature  or  complexion,  a  community  of 
descent.  "A  kindless  villain,"  such  as  Hamlet  calls  the 
King,  is  one  who  acts  contrary  to  the  usual  disposition 
of  men,  as  the  King  did  in  murdering  his  own  brother, 
Hamlet's  father.  "  A  little  more  than  kin  and  less 
than  kind,"  says  Hamlet  again,  of  the  king,  playing  on 
the  related  words.  The  chorus  in  "  Henry  V.,"  ad- 
dressing England,  exclaims  :  — 

"  What  mightst  thou  do 
Were  all  thy  children  kind  and  natural ;  " 

tliat  is,  were  they  all  true  to  their  nature  as  English- 
men, Avith  no  traitors  among  them. 

1  "  The  bee,"  says  Eichard  Rolle  de  Hampole,  the  old  English 
writer,  "  has  three  kyudes ;  ane  es  that  sche  is  neuer  ydell.' ' 


THE  LAW  OF  KINDNESS.  79 

"  Kind  "  as  an  adjective  easily  passes  on  to  imply  not 
only  the  feelings  which  show  a  common  nature  in  hu- 
man beings,  but  in  particular  the  feelings  which  show 
it  most,  the  tender  emotions.  These  prove  the  exist- 
ence, in  a  i)erson,  of  a  high  degree  of  sympathy  or  com- 
passion (these  two  words  are  etymologically  the  same). 
"A  fellow-feeling  makes  us  wondrous  kind."  "One 
touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin,"  l.  e.,  it 
makes  men  feel  alike,  and  with  each  other.  When  we 
■  are  thoughtful  about  the  fortunes  of  others,  and  dwell 
upon  their  lot  so  as  to  feel  with  them,  "  we  become 
kindly  with  our  kind,"  as  Tennyson  writes.  In  this 
way  "  kind,"  the  adjective,  reaches  its  present  and  usual 
meaning  of  tender  and  thoughtful  for  the  welfare  of 
others,  in  little  things  as  well  as  in  great. 

The  history  of  "kindness,"  the  noun,  has  followed  the 
same  course.  In  "  Much  Ado  About  Nothing  "  the  un- 
cle of  Claudio  is  reported  by  the  messenger  to  have 
burst  into  tears  when  he  heard  how  his  nephew  had 
distinguished  himself  in  battle.  "  A  kind  overflow  of 
kindness,"  says  Leonato  there,  meaning,  as  he  played 
upon  the  words,  a  natural  overflow  of  tender  feeling  in 
one  related,  "  akin,"  to  Claudio.  "  Thy  nature,"  says 
Lady  Macbeth  to  her  more  humane  spouse,  "  is  too  full 
o'  the  milk  of  human  kindness,"  i.  e.,  to  kill  the  king. 
'  Kindness,"  then,  points  to  the  great  fact  on  which  the 
moral  law  rests,  that  we  are  living  with  our  kind.  In 
this  life  together  we  are  to  think  very  carefully  about 
the  things  which  tend  to  make  it  profitable  and  pleasant 
to  all.  We  must  obey  the  laws  of  human  nature  which 
not  only  bring  men  together  but  are  also  continually 
operating  to  make  the  life  together  richer,  fairer,  and 
sweeter.  This  is  the  action  of  the  law  of  kindness, 
the  highest  law  of  human  society,  of  life  with  our  kind. 

We  are  wont  to  say  Iniman  society  and  human  kind. 
Notice  how  this  word  ''human"  and  the  word  "  Im- 
mane  "  are  related.     A  human  being,  an  individual  of 


80  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

the  species  Homo,  would  be  partially  described  by  the 
naturalist  as  an  animal  Avalking  upright  and  having  two 
hands,  and  a  large  brain  with  inany  convolutions.  We 
are  each  of  us  a  portion  of  such  a  "  humanity,"  meaning 
physiological  human  kind,  or  the  species  Homo,  through 
the  possession  of  these  physical  characteristics.  But 
"  humanity  "  means,  specifically,  the  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings proper,  i.  e.  peculiar,  to  mankind,  those  which  dis- 
tinguish us  from  the  lower  animals  more  plainly  than 
do  any  bodily  marks. ^  Most  of  all  it  stands  for  tender-  • 
ness  toward  our  own  kind,  so  that  "  humanity "  and 
"  kindness  "  are,  to  a  certain  degree,  synonymous,  the 
latter  word  having  historically  the  somewhat  wider 
meaning.  "Humane"  is  the  adjective  corresponding 
to  this  last-mentioned  sense  of  the  noun  "  humanity." 
An  old  translator  of  Plutarch  into  English  using  the 
word  in  the  earliest,  literal  sense,  "  of  man,"  speaks  of 
bearing  "  humane  cases  humanely,"  i.  e.,  bearing  the  lot 
of  man  like  a  man  ! 

The  change  of  signification  which  has  come  upon 
"  kind  "  and  "  human  "  is  one  sign  of  the  great  fact  of 
the  progress  of  man.  Universal  history,  indeed,  is  the 
record  of  man  becoming  more  human,  steadily  working 
out  the  beastly  and  savage  elements  in  his  mingled 
nature,  and  giving  ever  freer  exercise  to  those  elements 
which  are  distinctively  human.  The  humanization  of 
man  in  society  is  the  aim  of  all  that  we  properly  call 
civilizntion.  Every  step  in  this  process,  which  takes 
mankind  away  from  the  beast  and  the  savage,  in  thought, 
feeling,  and  action,  is  an  improvement,  since  thus  his 
special  nature  is  working  itself  free.  To  humanize  a 
race  is  to  give  it  knowledge  and  art,  a  higher  morality 
and  gentler  manners.  Observe  how  this  word  "  gentle," 
again,  comes  to  mean  what  it  does.    A  "  gentle  "  person 

^  "  Men  that  live  according'  to  the  rig'ht  rule  and  law  of  reason  live 
but  in  their  own  kind,  as  beasts  do  in  theirs,"  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
says. 


THE  LAW  OF  KINDNESS.  81 

was  originally  one  belonging  to  "  a  good  family,"  one 
"well-born."  Now  people  of  family,  the  well-born, 
among  their  other  advantages  have  more  leisure  than 
most  persons  to  consider  the  smaller  things  of  human 
intercourse  —  manners,  that  is,  and  the  "  minor  morals  " 
—  and  give  them  pleasing  shape.  Manners  with  these 
persons  are  improved ;  they  become  more  gracious  and 
refined,  largely  because  the  conditions  of  life  are  easier 
here  than  those  of  the  majority  of  mankind ;  the  Avell- 
to-do  can  thus  spend  more  time  and  thought  upon  minor 
matters  in  social  intercourse.  The  manners  of  good, 
or  polite  society  are,  properly,  the  kindest  manners,  be- 
cause they  have  been  the  object  of  much  consideration 
with  a  view  to  making  the  relations  of  men  and  women 
in  refined  society  pleasant  and  agreeable  in  every  way. 
"  Courtesy,"  our  word  for  the  finest  kind  of  manners, 
comes  from  the  "  court "  of  royal  personages  where  the 
greatest  attention  is  usually  paid  to  cultivating  fine 
manners. 

But  politeness  and  courtesy  have  now,  of  course,  no 
necessary  connection  with  kings  or  nobles.  The  law  of 
kindness  requires  consideration  of  others,  in  preference 
to  a  selfish  absorption  in  one's  own  pleasure  or  profit, 
and  such  kindness  is  not  chiefly  dependent  upon  our 
outward  rank.  As  far  as  external  conditions  go,  it  is 
more  easily  cultivated  in  a  state  of  comfort  and  leisure 
than  in  a  state  of  hardship  and  poverty,  but  its  essence 
is  in  the  kind  heart.  True  kindness  does  not  require 
that  we  try  to  suspend  for  any  one  the  fit  operation  of 
the  laAvs  of  human  life,  or  that  we  excuse  him  from 
obedience,  most  of  all,  to  the  moral  law.  Kindness  does 
not  allow  us  to  be  untrue  in  our  words  or  unjust  in  our 
deeds,  but  it  implies  a  constant  control  over  the  tongue 
and  hand,  so  that  the  spirit-  in  ■which  we  act  and 
speak  shall  be  gentle  and  considerate  of  the  feelings  of 
all  other  human  beings.  To  speak  the  truth  in  love,  — 
to  do  justly  while  we  love  the  mercy  that  is  above  all 
sceptred  sway,  —  this  is  the  ideal  of  human  conduct. 


82  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

Naturally,  we  learn  most  easily  how  to  live  in  this 
best  way  through  our  experience  in  our  own  homes. 
There  our  kin  are  our  teachers  in  kindness.  Nothing 
can  surj)ass  a  mother's  kindness  for  her  children,  or  a 
father's  concern  for  the  happiness  of  his  sons  and 
daughters,  unless  it  be  the  love  of  the  husband  and  wife 
themselves,  unitcji  in  a  true  marriage.  The  love  of  our 
brothers  and  sisters,  the  kind  thoughtfulness  and  affec- 
tionate helpfulness  which  are  the  very  atmosphere  of  a 
happy  home,  instruct  us  that  the  same  quality  of  mind 
and  heart  will  make  our  intercourse  with  other  human 
beings  better  and  more  humane.  Opportunities  for  for- 
getting ourselves,  for  thinking  how  to  do  good,  and  for 
the  doing  of  it,  are  innumerable  in  every  life,  and  the 
character  of  every  person  becomes  stronger,  richer,  and 
more  beautiful,  as  he  improves  these  occasions.  We 
are  not  doing  our  Avhole  duty  when  we  simply  tell  the 
truth  without  regard  to  the  mode  of  telling  it ;  when  we 
give  other  people  their  rights,  without  considering  the 
manner  in  which  we  regard  these  rights  ;  or  when  we 
have  brought  ourselves  to  obey  every  precept  of  the 
moral  law  in  an  external  way  only.  This  law  is  a  law 
of  life ;  obedience  should  become  a  second  nature,  so 
that  all  its  hardness  and  diflficulty  may  pass  away. 

"  Serene  will  be  our  days,  and  bright 
And  happy  will  our  nature  be 
When  love  is  an  unerring  light 
And  joy  its  own  security." 

The  element  of  beauty  is  needed  in  our  conduct,  as 
elsewhere  in  human  life.  Kindness  supplies  this  grace 
and  cliarm,  in  that  it  carries  regard  for  others  to  the 
point  of  making  it  a  fine  art.  Nothing  is  more  beauti- 
ful in  human  intercourse  than  purely  unselfish  love,  — 
of  man  and  woman,  of  mother  and  child,  of  brother  and 
sister,  of  whole-hearted  friends.  Beautiful,  too,  is  the 
good  man's  regard  for  all  other  members  of  the  great 
human  family,  when  nothing  that  is  human  is  alien  to 


THE  LAW  OF  KINDNESS.  83 

his  heart;  when  the  sight  of  the  weak,  the  ignorant, 
and  the  poor,  reminds  him  that  we  are  all  of  one  primal 
nature,  and  that  the  law  of  kindness  is  the  supreme  law 
for  man. 

The  short  and  easy  way  to  stamp  this  character  of 
beauty  on  our  conduct  is  to  begin  "with  the  heart,  out 
of  which  are  "  the  issues  of  life."  When  we  think 
clearly,  we  perceive  how  far  beyond  and  above  all  the  dif- 
ferences and  distinctions  between  human  beings  are  the 
great  and  fundamental  likenesses  of  man  to  man,  which 
should  arouse  and  sustain  in  us  all  a  feeling  of  the  com- 
mon brotherhood  of  humanity.  The  single  person  enters 
into  a  larger  life  by  sympathy  with  another.  Man  and 
woman  come  together  in  marriage,  the  closest  union  of 
this  kind,  and  find  strength  and  beauty  in  a  home  where 
love  reigns,  and  family  ties  multiply  the  sweetness  and 
the  power  of  life.  The  same  feeling  can  extend  itself, 
in  various  degrees,  but  in  the  one  form  of  human  kind- 
ness, to  all  the  relations  of  life,  to  soften  and  rehne  and 
beautify  human  society. 

The  law  of  kindness  tends  to  put  down  all  "  sur- 
vivals "  of  the  beast,  the  primitive  savage,  and  the  bar- 
barian, in  the  individual  and  in  the  world  at  large.  Un- 
kindness  is  injustice  to  one  of  the  same  race  with 
ourselves ;  it  is  untruthfulness  to  the  great  fact  of  our 
common  humanity.  But  as  a  positive  force  of  interest 
in  others  and  sympathy  with  them,  kindness  becomes 
the  finest  justice  and  the  most  delicate  truthful- 
ness. Harshness  is  unjust,  and  cruelty  is  brutal ;  both 
these  opposites  of  kindness  are  unhuman.  But  let  us 
do  a  kindness  to  a  person  whom  we  have  disliked,  and 
what  an  effect  it  has  in  clearing  away  injustice  in  our 
own  mind !  We  often  see  how  false  has  been  our  view 
of  what  we  called  the  facts  of  his  nature.  Human 
kindness  preserves  the  family  and  the  home,  and  makes 
them  fair  and  satisfying.  A  man  and  his  wife  used  often 
to  quarrel,  she  said,  but  now  that  they  kept  "  two  bears  " 


84  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

in  the  house  all  went  happily  :  the  names  of  these  two 
peacemakers  were  Bear  and  Forbear  ! 

Kindness  in  the  form  of  politeness  and  common  cour- 
tesy makes  the  relations  of  men  and  women  outside 
their  own  homes  a  source  of  pleasure  and  happiness, 
helping  on  every  other  good  thing.  Human  kindness 
between  nations  would  abolish  war  and  all  its  horrors. 
Peace  in  the  home  and  in  the  world,  and,  because  of 
peace,  larger  opportunity  for  growth  in  knowledge  and 
beauty  and  right  and  fulness  of  life  in  every  direction, 
—  this  is  the  result  of  love  fulfilling  every  moral 
la'w.  When  men  act  and  speak  and  think  and  feel  out 
of  a  generous,  merciful,  peaceful,  kindly  spirit,  then 
their  highest  level  here  upon  earth  is  attained,  human 
nature  comes  to  its  finest  flower,  and  the  fullest  fruit- 
age of  life  is  sure. 


NOTES. 

"  The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strained." 

A  CLASSIC  book  ou  courtesy  is  The  Gentleman,  by  George  H. 
Calvert,  full  of  references  to  history  and  literature,  from  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  to  Charles  Lamb.  Dr.  Holmes  defines  good  breed- 
ing as  "  surface  Christianity,"  and  Cardinal  Newman  says  the 
gentleman  is  "  one  who  never  willingly  gave  pain." 

"  Moral  life  is  based  on  sympathy  ;  it  is  feeling  for  others, 
working  for  others,  aiding  others,  quite  irrespective  of  any  per- 
sonal good  beyond  the  satisfaction  of  the  social  impulse.  En- 
lightened by  the  intuition  of  our  community  of  weakness,  we 
share  ideally  the  universal  sorrow.  Suffering  humanizes.  Feel- 
ing the  need  of  mutual  help,  we  are  prompted  by  it  to  labor  for 
others."     (G.  H.  Lewes.) 

Kindness  to  animals  is  distinctively  a  modern  virtue  in  Chris- 
tian countries.  It  is  an  extension  to  the  lower  animals,  espe- 
cially to  those  we  domesticate,  of  the  considerate  treatment  we 
have  first  learned  to  give  to  our  own  species. 

"  I  would  not  enter  on  my  list  of  friends 
(Though  graced  with  polished  manners  and  fine  sense, 


THE  LAW  OF  KINDNESS.  85 

Yet  la3king  sensibility)  the  man 

Who  needlessly  sets  foot  upon  a  -wonn." 

Read  Rab  and  his  Friends;  such  poems  as  The  Halo,  by  W.  C. 
Gannett,  and  selections  from  the  biographies  of  men,  like  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  fond  of  dogs  and  horses.  See  Miss  Cobbe  on  the 
Education  of  the  Emotions  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  xliii.  p.  223. 
Lessons  on  Manners,  by  Edith  Wiggin,  is  a  good  handbook  for 
the  teacher.     As  for  kindness  in  charitable  works :  — 

"  That  is  no  true  alms  ■which  the  hand  can  hold ; 
He  g^ves  only  the  worthless  gold 
Who  gives  from  a  sense  of  duty  ; 
But  he  who  gives  but  a  slender  mite 
And  gives  to  that  which  is  out  of  sight, 
That  thread  of  the  all-sustaining  Beauty 
Which  runs  through  all  and  doth  all  unite,  — 
The  hand  cannot  clasp  the  whole  of  his  alms." 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  GREAT  WORDS  OF  MORALITY. 

In  our  previous  chapters  we  have  studied  the  mean- 
ing of  "  law  "  in  general,  and  of  the  "  moral  law  "  in  par- 
ticular. "  Duty,"  "  ought,"  "  justice,"  and  "  kindness  " 
we  have  also  explained.  Bu.t  there  are  numerous  other 
words  used  very  commonly  in  speaking  of  human  ac- 
tions, such  as  "  right  "  and  ''  wrong,"  "  conscience," 
"  virtue,"  and  ''  vice,"  which  we  have  not  yet  consid- 
ered. In  every  art  and  in  every  science  a  clear  under- 
standing of  the  exact  meanings  of  the  words  we  use  is 
important.  But  nowhere  is  it  of  more  consequence 
than  when  we  are  speaking  or  writing  about  the  moral 
character  of  actions.  Indeed,  in  discussing  matters  of 
conduct  the  decision  as  to  their  rightness  or  wrongness 
often  turns  upon  the  definition  we  give  of  "  right  "  and 
"  wrong "  in  general.  In  this  book  we  are  trying  to 
keep  clear  of  controversies  as  to  the  ultimate  nature  of 
vice  and  virtue,  of  the  morally  good  and  the  morally 
bad,  and  to  remain  upon  the  ground  of  practical  ethics 
where  there  is  a  general  agreement  among  men.  In 
such  a  spirit,  avoiding  refinements  and  subtleties,  let  us 
look  at  some  of  the  words  which  mankind  commonly 
use  in  regard  to  morals. 

In  the  first  place,  however,  what  do  we  mean  pre- 
cisely by  "  moral "  or  "  ethical "  ?  The  two  words  have 
the  same  signification,  the  first  coming  from  the  Latin 
language,  and  the  second  from  the  Greek ;  both  mean 
"  pertaining  to  the  habits,  manners,  or  customs  of  men." 
Of  course,  not  all  possible  actions  of  human  beings  are 
called  "  moral."     We  eat  and  sleep  and  do  many  other 


THE  GREAT   WORDS  OF  MORALITY.  87 

things  wliich  all  other  animals  do  as  a  part  of  their  ani- 
mal  existence.  These  are  not  immoral  but  xm.moral 
acts :  there  is  no  propriety  in  applying  the  words 
"  right "  and  "  wrong  "  to  them.  We  read  and  study, 
again  ;  we  employ  our  minds  in  many  ways,  and  we  do 
not  think  of  vice  or  virtue  as  fit  words  to  use  about 
what  we  are  doing.  There  is  thus  a  great  deal  of  hu- 
man life  which  lies  outside  of  the  world  of  moral 
distinctions :  our  instinctive  animal  existence,  the 
natural  play  of  the  mind,  and  numerous  powers  of  con- 
scious thought  and  action  have  standards  other  than 
those  of  morals.  We  may  not  judge  a  book,  a  picture, 
or  a  building  by  morals  alone. 

Only  a.  2xirt  of  all  the  manners  and  customs  of  men 
do  we  properly  call  moral  or  immoral.  This  part,  evi- 
dently, takes  in  those  actions  which  most  directly  affect 
the  welfare  of  other  persons.  Man  in  society  is  the 
subject  of  moral  or  ethical  science,  and  our  actions 
show  themselves  to  be  moral  or  immoral  according  as 
they  tend,  immediately  or  ultimately,  to  the  welfare  or 
to  the  injury  of  other  human  beings.  Eating  my  break- 
fast is  not  a  moral  act  in  itself ;  but  if  I  give  another 
person  poisoned  food  for  his  breakfast,  it  is  a  highly 
immoral  deed  that  I  do.  If  any  act  of  mine  is  plainly 
confined  in  its  consequences  to  myself,  then  its  moral 
quality  is  not  immediately  obvious.  If  every  human 
being  were  out  of  all  relations  to  every  other,  there 
could  be  no  such  science  or  art  as  morals  or  ethics,  for 
"  duties  to  self,"  as  they  are  sometimes  called,  would 
not,  alone,  constitute  such  a  science.  But  there  is  a 
law,  as  we  have  seen,  governing  all  the  many  actual 
relations  of  men  to  one  another,  and  because  we  are 
social  beings  and  live  our  lives  mainly  together,  this 
law,  the  law  of  morality,  is  of  the  very  first  importance 
to  us.  Duty,  "  the  ought,"  as  we  have  explained,  is  the 
obedience  we  "  owe  "  to  this  law.  But  there  is  a  very 
common  phrase,  "  rights  and  duties."    This  combination 


88  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

indicates  the  social  nature  of  morals.  Our  duties  are 
what  we  owe  to  others  ;  oxw  rights  are  what  others  owe 
to  us.  Their  rights  are  our  duties  ;  their  duties  are 
oiir  rights. 

"  Right  "  (which  comes  from  the  same  root  as  rectus, 
straight)  means,  first  of  all,  "  in  accordance  with  rule 
or  law."  Kighteousness,  or  rightness,  is  equivalent  to 
rectitude,  which  means  going  straight  by  the  rule  or 
vieas'ure.  This  rule  has  come  to  be  for  all  mankind  the 
rule  in  particular  derived  from  the  moral  law :  right 
means,  therefore,  doing  the  things  which  the  moral  law, 
of  truthfulness  or  kindness  for  instance,  prescribes  to 
be  done.  If  we  can  find  this  law  and  merely  under- 
stand it  as  we  should  any  other  law  of  nature,  we  are 
intellectually  right,  i.  e.,  correct  in  our  thought ;  if  we 
act  as  it  commands,  we  are  morally  right,  so  far  as  our 
action  is  concerned ;  if  we  obey  it  in  a  spirit  of  glad- 
ness, as  the  inspiring  law  of  our  human  life,  then  we 
are  right,  all  through,  —  mind  and  hand  and  heart  and 
will :  then  we  are  completely  moral  beings. 

"  Right "  has  in  it  the  notion  of  straightness,  straight- 
forwardness, directness.  A  "  right  line  "  is  the  straight 
line  between  any  two  points.  Eight  conduct  is  conduct 
tending  directly  to  social  welfare,  the  good  of  all  em- 
bracing the  good  of  each.  But  when  one's  action  is 
bent  or  swayed  out  of  this  straight  line,  when  it  tends 
to  some  other  mark  than  the  good  of  all,  it  is  "  wrong," 
i.  e.,  it  is  wrung  out  of  conformity  with  the  rule  or 
law. 

Now  the  great  occasion  or  cause  of  wrong-doing  in 
the  world  is,  as  we  have  seen,  that  we  are  apt  to  think 
only  of  ourselves  when  we  act.  Our  own  welfare  very 
often  so  takes  the  first  place  in  our  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings that  we  care  little,  or  not  at  all,  what  the  conse- 
quences of  our  deeds  may  be  to  other  persons.  There 
are,  in  truth,  many  matters  in  which  we  must  think 
about  our  own  comfort  and  convenience  as  the  impor- 


THE  GREAT  WORDS   OF  MORALITY.  89 

tant  matter,  since  self-help  is  the  best  kind  of  help  ;  and 
if  the  thing  we  desire  is  good  for  us,  it  may  be  entirely 
right  that  we  should  endeavor  to  obtain  it.  But  when 
a  benefit  of  any  kind  is  one  that  may  be  shared,  or  that 
must  be  shared,  in  order  that  no  one  shall  suffer  because 
another  gets  more  than  his  portion,  then  pure  selfhood 
becomes  selfishness,  and  is  wrong.  For  example,  a 
farmer  works  hard  to  make  money  from  his  land  :  he 
labors  on  his  own  place,  and  has  his  own  interest,  not 
his  neighbor's,  in  view,  as  he  buys  and  sells  according 
to  the  usual  laws  of  trade.  This  is  right :  there  is  no 
selfishness  about  caring  for  one's  self  in  this  way.  But 
the  farmer  is  bound  to  provide  for  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, to  see  that  they  have  enough  to  eat,  that  they  are 
well  clothed,  that  the  children  go  to  school,  that  the 
hired  men  receive  fair  wages  and  are  punctually  paid, 
and  that  all  the  benefits  of  his  prosperity,  such  as  it  is, 
are  divided  among  those  who  have  a  just  and  natural 
claim  upon  him.  But  while  the  farmer  is  making 
money,  he  may  compel  his  family  to  fare  poorly  and 
dress  meanly  ;  he  may  keep  his  children  at  work  when 
they  should  have  the  opportunity  to  go  to  school ;  he 
may  "  beat  down  "  the  pay  of  his  workmen  and  delay 
the  payment.  In  all  these  ways,  not  to  speak  of  other 
matters,  he  may  disregard  the  fact  that  we  are  partners 
with  one  another.  Instead  of  going  straight  to  the 
mark  of  the  plain  and  simple  duty  before  him,  he  may 
force  and  complicate  things  into  a  state  of  wrongness 
by  his  selfishness.  The  crooked  line  is  the  proper  em- 
blem of  the  conduct  that  obeys  no  law;  the  straight 
line,  of  the  conduct  that  is  true  to  the  direction  which 
the  law  commands. 

Vice,  a  common  word  in  speaking  of  bad  conduct, 
means,  first  of  all,  a  defect:  it  refers  to  a  deficiency 
in  the  exercise  of  that  power  of  self-control  of  which  we 
have  before  spoken  as  the  root  of  morality  in  the  pri- 
vate person.     One  man  does  not  exert  himself  as  he 


90  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

miglit  about  his  proper  work :  he  has  the  vice  of  idle- 
ness. Another  does  not  control  his  liking  for  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  and  he  falls  into  the  vice  of  intemper- 
ance. A  third  man  may  have  a  violent  or  an  irritable 
disposition  which  he  does  not  control,  and  he  falls  into 
the  vice  of  bad  temper.  So  the  vicious  man  practically 
sets  up  his  own  pleasure  or  wilfulness  as  the  law  by 
which  he  acts.  He  is  not  strong,  but  weak,  in  that  he 
does  not  have  the  mastery  over  himself  which  full  obe- 
dience to  the  moral  law  requires. 

Virtue,  on  the  contrary,  originally  meant  manliness, 
and  especially  the  distinctive  excellence  of  a  man, 
courage.  The  word  always  implies  strength,  and 
when  it  came  to  be  applied  to  conduct,  it  marked  power 
of  will  to  control  one's  self,  according  to  the  law  of 
right.  The  "  cardinal,"  or  chief,  virtues  were  formerly 
said  to  be  justice,  prudence,  temperance,  and  fortitude. 
Underlying  all  these  is  the  notion  of  strength.  Jus- 
tice demands  the  ability  to  put  down  one's  exorbitant 
wishes  and  to  limit  one's  self,  as  well  as  other  persons, 
each  to  his  share.  Prudence  (from  pro-vidence,  looking 
forward)  signifies  a  will-power  which  is  sufficient  to 
curb  our  own  indolence  or  extravagance  or  carelessness 
in  view  of  our  probable  needs  or  interests  in  the  future. 
Temperance  implies  just  such  a  restraint,  such  a  stop- 
ping short  of  excess,  with  a  view  to  the  more  immedi- 
ate consequences.  Fortitude  is  courage,  active  or  pas- 
sive, in  doing  or  bearing.  These  four  "  virtues  "  (from 
the  Latin  vir,  a  man)  are  signs  of  manliness :  they 
belong  to  the  manly  mind  and  the  manly  will.  Injus- 
tice, imprudence,  intemperance,  and  cowardice  are 
equally  marks  of  moral  weakness  in  a  person.  A  train- 
ing in  virtue,  then,  is  like  physical  training  :  its  object 
is  to  give  strength  and  power  of  self-control.  In  one 
case  we  strengthen  the  muscles  by  use  that  they  may 
be  ready  servants  of  the  will  in  time  of  need.  In  the 
other  case  we  strengthen  our  powers  of  judgment  and 


THE  GREAT  WORDS  OF  MORALITY.  91 

self-control  in  small  matters,  so  that  we  may  show  our- 
selves equal  to  emergencies  which  require  the  lull 
strength  of  a  man  in  resisting  evil. 

"  Conscience  "  is  the  word  we  use  to  denote  each  per- 
son's knowledge  of  the  moral  law,  or  his  power  of  know- 
ing it  and  passing  judgment  as  to  matters  of  morality. 
Its   meaning,   etymologically,  is  doubtful.     "Knowing 
with,"  its  two  members  (con-sciu)  signify,  but  "  knowing 
with"  ivhat  ?    Some  call  it  a  faculty  which  gives  an  im- 
mediate knowledge  of  right  and  wrong,  and  does  not 
need  instruction,  but  only  opportunity  to  speak.    Others 
would  call  it  a  faculty  capable  of  enlightenment  like 
any  other  faculty  of  the  human  mind.     Into  such  dis- 
cussions as  to  the  ultimate  nature  of  conscience  we  have 
no  need   to   enter   here.     The   final    ground   of   right, 
whether  in  utility  or  in  experience  or  in  intuition,  is 
another  point  which  belongs  to  the  theory  of  ethics,  not 
to  the  practical  morality  which  now  concerns  us.     On 
the  main  matters  of  conduct  there  is  virtual  agreement 
among  civilized  men  as  to  what  is  right  and  what  is 
wrong.     Why  this,  finally,  is  right  or  why  that  is  finally 
wrong,  is  another  matter,  on  which  philosophers  differ 
and  dispute.     The  great  majority  of  mankind  are  inter- 
ested only  in  determining  what  to  do,  not  what  to 
think,  in  the  sphere  of  conduct.     It  is  agreed  by  all 
that  children  need  instruction  and  advice  as  to  right 
and  wrong,  and  a  great  part  of   the  conversation  and 
the  writing  of  grown  people  consists  of  the  giving  of  ad- 
vice or  suggestion  about  moral  matters.     Thus  whatever 
our  consciences  may  be,  in  the  last  resort,  we  all  need 
instruction  as  to  the  facts  in  any  case  where  we  have  to 
act,  and  we  need  to  reason  clearly  and  logically  from 
these  facts  in  the  light  of  moral  principles  generally  ad- 
mitted.    Not  only  is  this  so  ;  we  need  to  have  our  inter- 
est in  right-doing,  by  others  and  by  ourselves,  kept  \\v> 
and  quickened  by  thinking  earn(\stly  about  conduct  and 
clearing  our  minds,  and  by  purifying  and  strengthening 


92  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

our  wills,  so  that  we  shall  understand  and  do  and  love 
the  right.  If  we  are  thus  drawn  toward  the  moral  life 
with  the  full  force  of  our  nature,  it  is  of  little  conse- 
quence how  we  define  conscience,  or  what  our  theory  is 
about  its  origin  in  the  history  of  our  race.  Like  the 
sense  of  beauty,  the  moral  sense  justifies  itself  by  its 
results,  not  by  its  definitions  :  each  aims  at  a  practical 
result,  not  at  the  vindication  of  a  theory.  The  virtuous 
life,  all  will  say,  is  life  in  accordance  with  the  highest 
laws  of  human  nature.  "  Good  "  is,  to  us  human  be- 
ings, whatever  is  fit  or  suitable  for  man ;  moral  good  is 
what  is  fit  or  suitable  for  man  to  do  or  be  in  the  society 
of  his  kind.  The  good  man,  morally  speaking,  is  al- 
ways good  for  something. 


NOTES. 


The  teacher  will  do  well  to  trace  the  natural  history  of  every 
word  that  conveys  a  sense  of  moral  obligation.  "  Should,"  he 
will  find,  for  instance,  is  derived  from  tlie  Teutonic  root  skal,  to 
owe:  thus  its  meaning  is  radically  the  same  as  that  of  "  ought." 
"Must,"  —  a  frequent  word  in  this  book, — is  often  equivalent 
to  "ought."  One  ought  to  do  so  and  so  to  attain  an  end ^ one 
7nust  do  it.  Right  is  noted  as  the  straight  and  obvious  course  in 
these  lines:  — 

"  Beauty  may  be  the  path  to  highest  good, 
And  some  successfully  have  it  pursued. 
Thou,  who  wouldst  follow,  be  well  warned  to  see 
That  way  prove  not  a  curved  road  to  thee. 
The  straightest  way,  perhaps,  which  may  be  sought 
Lies  through  the  great  highway  men  call  I  ought." 

Right  is  simple,  i.  e.,  without  folds;  wrong  is  often  duplicity, 
full  of  complexities. 

"Man  is  saved  by  love  and  duty,"  said  Amiel;  "society  rests 
upon  conscience,  not  upon  science."  "  A  society  can  be  founded 
only  on  respect  for  liberty  and  justice,"  M.  Taine  declares. 

"  A  right  "  can  be  made  out  only  when  it  can  be  proved  to  be 
some  person's  positive  duty;  "  the  right "  is  what  all  ought  to  do, 


THE  GREAT   WORDS  OF  MORALITY.  93 

i.  e.,  what  they  owe  to  one  another,  or  to  society  at  large.  The 
variations  of  conscience  in  different  times  and  countries  (see 
Wake,  The  Evolution  of  Morality)  correspond  to  the  degrees  of 
enlightenment  reached  by  the  human  race  ;  they  prove  that  mo- 
rality is  a  progressive  art,  not  that  right  and  wrong  are  delu- 
sions. Conscience  needs  enlightenment  and  training,  like  all 
other  human  powers.  A  high  stage  of  pi-ogress  is  marked  in 
Carlyle's  saying:  "There  is  in  man  a  higher  than  love  of  happi- 
ness. He  can  do  without  happiness,  and  instead  thereof  find 
blessedness."  Rights  and  Duties  is  a  suggestive  little  manual 
by  Mrs.  K.  G.  Wells,  and  Mr.  Smiles's  Duty  has  an  abundance 
of  illustrative  matter. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 
HOME. 

Home  is  the  name  we  give  to  the  place  where  our 
family  life  is  lived.  The  family,  made  up  of  father, 
mother,  children,  and  other  blood-relatives,  is  the  most 
important  and  most  helpful  of  human  associations.  AVe 
are  born  into  the  family,  and  in  our  years  of  weakness 
we  are  supported  and  our  life  made  stronger  and  better 
by  the  love  and  help  of  father  and  mother,  and  brothers 
and  sisters.  "When  we  grow  up,  we  marry  and  form 
other  families,  and  become  ourselves  fathers  and  mo- 
thers, bringing  up  children,  as  we  were  brought  up. 
Home,  "  sweet  home,"  ought  to  be,  as  it  is  to  most  per- 
sons, the  dearest  spot  on  earth,  where  we  find  loving 
words  and  sympathy  and  kind  deeds,  and  where  we  may 
return  these,  and  do  each  his  full  part  in  this  small  and 
close  society,  —  very  powerful  for  good  because  it  is  a 
small  body  and  the  "  life  together  ''  is  here  intimate  and 
continuous.  We  have  certain  hours  for  work  away 
from  our  homes  ;  we  associate  with  others  in  school,  or 
business,  or  travel,  and  in  divers  other  ways ;  but  at 
home  we  not  only  eat  at  the  same  board  and  sleep  under 
the  same  roof,  but  we  know  one  another  and  can  help 
and  love  one  another  day  after  day,  and  year  after  year, 
until  in  the  family  we  die,  as  into  the  family  we  were 
born.  "  Home  "  is  the  sweetest  and  strongest  word 
in  our  language,  because  it  stands  for  so  much  of  love 
and  fellow-service,  for  the  tenderest  and  fairest  side  of 
our  life. 

The  family,  which  makes  the  home,  is  a  natural  insti- 
tution, the  outgrowth   of  our  deepest  human   nature. 


HOME.  95 

The  love  of  man  and  woman  which  brings  them  together 
as  husband  and  wife  comes  next  to  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  in  its  universality  and  power.  It  is  the 
foundation  of  the  family,  and  if  we  follow  it  along  its 
course  of  development  and  refinement  in  the  civilized 
countries  of  to-day,  we  find  the  virtues,  that  is,  the 
strengths  and  the  excellences,  which  go  to  make  the 
true  and  perfect  home. 

The  husband  and  father  is  the  natural  head  of  the 
family ;  on  him  it  depends  for  its  support.  He  used  to 
have  in  ancient  times  even  the  power  of  life  and  death 
over  his  children.  But  the  power  which  he  now  has  is 
based  on  right  and  reason.  The  wife  and  mother  is  his 
friend  and  dear  companion  and  constant  helper.  On  her 
more  than  on  him,  in  the  natural  course  of  things,  the 
daily  care  of  the  children  rests.  To  father  and  mother, 
then,  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  house  should  look  up 
with  respect  and  love  as  older  and  more  experienced 
than  themselves,  and  thus  able  to  teach  and  guide  them 
in  many  things  of  which  they  are  ignorant  and  incapa- 
ble. The  first  thing  necessary  to  make  a 'happy  home  is 
cheerful  obedience  paid  by  children  to  their  parents, 
who  are  providing  them  with  food  and  clothing  and 
shelter  and  education,  and  who  have  no  greater  desire 
than  to  see  their  children  growing  up  to  be  good  and 
intelligent  men  and  women.  Children  in  their  younger 
years  can  return  but  little  for  the  immeasurable  love 
and  help  which  their  fathers  and  mothers  delight  to 
bestow  upon  them.  But  they  may  make  life  pleasanter 
for  their  parents  by  showing  a  cheerful  and  contented 
spirit,  by  returning  the  love,  and  doing  the  little  they 
can  to  aid  in  the  daily  work  of  the  family  life.  In 
running  errands,  in  learning  to  help  itself  about  dress- 
ing, in  tending  the  baby,  for  instance,  the  young  child 
may  exhibit  a  loving  and  helpful  spirit,  which  will 
make  it  still  dearer  to  the  heart  of  father  and  mother. 

At  home,  more  than  anywhere  else,  obedience  to  those 


96  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

who  liave  a  natural  right  to  commaud  should  be  ready 
and  cheerful.  Our  parents  are  older  and  wiser  than  we  ; 
they  give  us  directions  only  for  our  own  good,  and  have 
our  happiness  always  in  view.  Until  we  can  see  and 
understand  the  reasons  why  they  order  us  to  do  this 
or  that,  we  should  do  it  because  they  have  ordered  it. 
Father  and  mother  are  the  law-makers  and  law-executors 
for  the  children,  who  should  obey  as  the  sailor  on  a  ves- 
sel at  once  obeys  the  captain  or  the  pilot,  as  the  soldier 
gives  instant  attention  to  the  command  of  his  officer, 
and  as  the  hired  man  at  work  follows  the  directions  of 
his  employer.  Father  and  mother  are  acting  for  the 
good  of  the  whole  family.  The  children  must  be  content 
to  obey,  and  take  their  own  share,  and  should  not  make 
life  hard  for  their  parents  by  disobedience,  stubborn- 
ness, idleness,  or  other  forms  of  selfishness.  The  Golden 
Eule  would  teach  children  to  remember  constantly  how 
much  father  and  mother  are  doing  for  them,  not  only  in 
the  matters  which  any  one  can  see,  such  as  care  for 
their  health  and  comfort,  but  also  in  training  them  to 
become  honest  and  upright  men  and  women.  This  is 
the  greatest  thing  that  our  parents  can  do  for  us,  to 
bring  us  up  in  habits  of  self-control  and  truthfulness 
and  honor  and  kindness,  so  that  as  we  grow  older,  we 
can  be  trusted  to  walk  by  ourselves  and  to  do  the  right 
because  -we  know  it  and  prize  it,  not  simply  because 
we  are  ordered  to  do  it. 

But  this  doing  of  the  right  is,  quite  naturally,  what 
children  often  like  very  little  or  dislike  very  much. 
They  want  to  have  their  own  way,  whether  it  is  the 
right  and  reasonable  way,  or  not.  They  do  not  always 
"  feel  like  "  going  to  school,  or  helping  their  parents  or 
brothers  and  sisters  in  some  small  way.  But  home 
rests  upon  law  and  love.  The  father,  who  sees  so 
much  more  clearly  than  the  unwilling  boy  what  is  right 
and  just  and  fair  and  reasonable,  will  make  him  "mind," 
by  force,  if  necessary.     The  great  law  of  the  home  is 


HOME.  97 

helj^fulness  and  kindness  from  each  to  all  and  from,  all  to 
each  ;  it  is  always  well  with  us  if  the  law  is  enforced 
whenever  we  do  not  cheerfully  obey  it.  Boys  and  girls 
are  growing  up  to  become  fathers  and  mothers  them- 
selves, in  their  turn,  and  they  cannot  learn  too  soon 
that  each  must  be  ready  and  willing  to  do  his  own  part 
in  the  work  of  life,  and  be  satisfied  with  his  share  of 
good  and  pleasant  things,  helping  and  helped,  happy 
and  making  others  happy. 

There  should  be  no  other  place  like  home  to  us. 
There  is  no  other  place  where  we  can  shoAV  so  plainly 
what  we  are,  —  kind  and  true  and  helpful,  or  selfish 
and  false  and  careless  of  our  duty.  Moral  training  be- 
gins here,  and  throughout  life  it  centres  here.  When  a 
man  is  a  good  son  or  father  or  husband,  he  is  likely  to 
be  a  true  man  in  business  and  in  the  larger  life  in  gen- 
eral, beyond  his  home.  We  need,  then,  to  think  very 
carefully  about  our  duties  at  home  that  we  may  be 
sources  of  sweetness  and  light  there.  In  the  right  and 
true  home  we  love  and  help  one  another  without  asking 
a  return,  and  from  no  selfish  motive  whatever ;  begin- 
ning with  the  simplest  forms  of  duty  we  rise  to  the  fair- 
est heights  of  love  through  self-forgetfulness  in  kindly 
service. 

The  virtues  of  home  are  the  qualities  which  tend  to 
make  it  strong  in  a  mutual  helpfulness  of  all  the  family 
circle,  and  sweet  and  pleasant  in  a  beautiful  spirit  of 
love.  To  serve,  not  to  be  served;  to  give,  not  to  re- 
ceive ;  to  help  and  bless  continually  by  word  and 
example,  —  this  makes  firm  the  family  bond,  and  keeps 
home  as  it  should  be,  the  dearest  place  on  earth.  The 
virtues,  the  strength  and  the  excellence  of  home  lie 
deep  in  justice  and  right  and  truth ;  but  nowhere  else 
can  we  so  love  and  be  loved,  nowhere  else  does  duty 
so  easily  pass  into  affection.  Home  should,  then,  be  a 
sacred  place  to  us.  We  do  well  to  remember  the  Lares 
and  Penates,  as  the  old  Romans  called  the  household 


98  TIIi:  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

gods.  Their  images  were  in  every  house ;  a  perpetual 
fire  was  kept  on  the  hearth  in  their  honor ;  on  the  table 
the  salt-cellar  stood  for  them,  and  the  firstlings  of  the 
fruit  were  laid,  and  every  meal  was  considered  as,  in  a 
sense,  a  sacrifice  to  them.  When  one  of  the  family 
came  home  after  absence,  he  saluted  the  Penates  as 
well  as  the  family,  and  thanked  them  for  his  safe  re- 
turn. So  we  should  consider  our  home  holy  ground,  — 
too  holy  for  wrong  or  vice  to  tread,  —  a  place  sacred  to 
love  and  duty.  Through  these  virtues  home  is  deeply 
helpful  to  our  best  life  beyond  the  family  border. 


NOTES. 


There  is  a  considerable  literature  on  the  origin  and  develop- 
ment of  the  family  iu  liiiman  history.  Such  a  book  as  E.  B.  Ty- 
lov's  Anthropology  (in  the  closing  chapter  on  Society)  will  be  suf- 
ficient for  most  uses.  It  is  of  vastly  more  consequence  to  study 
family  life  in  its  highest  excellence  to-day  than  to  trace  its  ani- 
mal beginnings.  Ethics  is  concerned  more  with  what  ought  to 
be  than  with  what  is  or  what  has  been;  at  the  same  time,  a 
knowledge  of  the  past  and  the  present  is  necessary  to  any  wise 
attempt  to  shape  the  future.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  Justice, 
marks  this  fundamental  difference  between  family  ethics  and 
state  ethics:  "  Within  the  family  group  most  must  be  given  where 
least  is  deserved,  if  desert  is  measured  by  worth.  Contrariwise, 
after  maturity  is  reached  benefit  must  vary  directly  as  worth; 
worth  being  measured  by  fitness  to  the  conditions  of  existence." 

The  monogamous  family  is  the  form  under  which  modern  civ- 
ilized man  obeys  the  imperious  instinct  which  bids  the  race  pre- 
serve itself.  Self-preservation,  in  its  broadest  sense,  is  the  com- 
panion-instinct. The  dictates  of  both  are  obeyed  in  the  close 
cooperation  of  the  family,  where  the  most  exigent  duties  are  ren- 
dered easy  by  the  strong  affections  naturally  engendered.  The 
monogamous  family,  Goethe  said,  is  man's  greatest  conquest 
over  the  brute;  it  rests  not  upon  mere  animal  inclination,  but 
upon  the  most  constant  obedience  to  duty,  —  an  obedience  ren- 
dered easy  and  happy  by  use  and  love. 


HOME.  99 

Some  classic  poems  of  home  are  the  "  Cotter's  Saturday 
Night  ; "  Cowper's  "  Winter  Evening  ;  "  Wordsworth's  lines  to 
the  lark,  "  Ethereal  minstrel,  pilgrim  of  the  sky ; "  and  Whittier's 
"  Snow  Bound."  Three  good  books  are  Home  Life,  by  J.  F.  W. 
Ware  ;  Home  Teaching,  by  E.  A.  Abbott;  and  The  Duties  of 
Women,  by  F.  P.  Cobbe.  The  pamphlet  lessons  on  Home  Life, 
by  Mrs.  Susaa  P.  Lesley,  are  suggestive. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
WORK. 

Man  is  born  to  work  and  employ  his  powers  of  body 
and  mind  for  good  ends.  That  we  have  strength  is  a 
sign  that  we  were  intended  to  use  it  in  order  to  preserve 
our  life  and  make  it  comfortable  through  our  exertions. 
That  one  may  eat  and  drink,  have  clothing  and  shelter, 
get  an  education,  own  a  house,  be  able  to  travel,  or  enjoy 
life  in  any  one  of  a  thousand  ways,  he  must  work,  or 
some  one  must  work  for  him.  No  human  being  is  free 
from  the  necessity  or  the  duty  of  working  and  making 
use  of  his  natural  powers. 

Now  all  work  has  its  conditions  of  success,  and  these 
demand  certain  qualities  which  we  will  call  the  virtues 
of  work.  They  are  such  excellences  of  character  as 
Industry,  Punctuality,  Orderliness,  Intelligence,  and 
Economy.  Taking  a  general  view  of  all  kinds  of  labor, 
we  see  that  to  do  any  woi'k  well  and  succeed  in  gaining 
a  good  result,  we  must  comply  with  these  natural  moral 
conditions ;  if  we  will  not,  then  we  fail,  whatever  our 
other  virtues  may  be.  As  each  one  of  us  grows  up  and 
takes  to  some  special  kind  of  business  to  support  him- 
self and  those  dependent  on  him,  he  is  obliged  to  learn 
the  proper  ways  of  doing  things,  whether  it  be  farming, 
or  carpentering,  or  teaching,  or  practising  law,  for  in- 
stance. Each  pursuit  has  to  be  learned  by  itself,  hav- 
ing its  special  works  and  needs.  One  person  must  live 
on  a  farm  and  work  under  a  farmer  to  learn  agriculture  ; 
another  must  go  into  a  printing-office  and  learn  his 
"  case  "  if  he  would  be  a  compositor ;  a  thii*d  must  go 
to  college  and  a  professional  school  to  learn  medicine  or 


WORK.  101 

law.  But  in  all  these  directions  we  find  work  has  its 
general  laws,  the  same  evert/ivhei-e,  and  we  cannot  begin 
too  soon  to  recognize  them  and  obey  them,  whatever  we 
are  doing. 

I.  We  must  be  industrious.  This  means  that  we 
must  be  willing  and  ready  each  of  us  to  do  at  least  the 
share  of  work  that  comes  to  him,  at  home,  in  the  school- 
room, or  in  business.  We  must  learn  to  like  work,  if 
we  do  not  naturally  enjoy  it,  by  working,  and  to  rejoice 
in  the  fact  that  we  are  accomplishing  something  in  this 
world.  We  have  to  form  a  habit,  by  practice,  of  steady, 
patient,  and  persevering  labor.  We  must  have  intervals 
for  rest  and  play  or  recreation,  but  while  we  work  we 
should  work  with  our  might,  and  while  we  play,  let  us 
play ;  work  and  play  are  successful  and  reach  their  aim 
only  when  so  taken.  If  we  idle  when  we  should  be 
working,  some  one  else  must  do  the  work  that  we  should 
have  done,  and  thus  the  fundamental  rule,  "each  his 
part,"  is  violated.  Pure  idleness  is  shirking  one's  duty 
as  a  soldier  deserts  his  regiment.  Idling  over  one's 
work,  "  scamping  "  it,  is  unjust  to  those  who  employ  us, 
and  naturally  leads  to  our  discharge.  Into  what  we  are 
doing  we  should  put  our  whole  strength ;  if  disagree- 
able work  is  before  us  we  must  learn  not  to  be  concerned 
about  the  disagreeableness  and  in  time  the  task  will  be- 
come easier  and  less  irksome.  The  first  law  of  each 
place  of  work  is  work !  School  is  the  place  to  study 
in ;  the  blacksmith's  shop,  the  cotton-mill,  the  shipyard, 
are  places  in  which  to  tise  one's  hand  and  eye  in  steady 
labor  ;  let  us,  then,  do  the  head-work  or  the  hand-work 
faithfully. 

II.  Most  of  the  work  that  men  do  must  be  done  at 
fixed  times,  if  it  is  to  be  done  well.  There  must  be  an 
hour  for  opening  the  shop  or  the  factory  or  the  school, 
and  at  this  time  the  workers  must  attend,  for  "  time  is 
money  "  to  all  who  work.  Punctuality,  being  true  to 
the  point  of  time,  is  one  of  the  first  of  business  vir- 


102  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

tues.  The  hour  is  set  for  beginning  the  clay's  work,  and 
we  are  to  be  paid  for  the  day's  time.  If  we  are  late  in 
arriving  at  work,  we  are  not  performing  our  part  of  the 
agreement,  and  are  thus  doing  wrong.  Business  of 
every  kind  must  have  its  time  set  for  beginning  and 
ending,  and  time  has  more  and  more  value  as  men 
become  more  civilized.  So  we  should  imitate  in  our 
human  affairs  the  punctuality  shown  by  the  tides  and 
the  changes  of  the  moon  and  even  the  comets,  whose  ap- 
j)earance  is  foretold  by  astronomers,  ages  beforehand,  to 
the  minute.  When  "  on  time,"  the  school  opens  with 
all  the  pupils  in  their  seats  at  the  fixed  hour,  and  the 
lessons  and  study  begin  at  once.  The  school  work  is  not 
hindered  and  delayed  by  Fred  or  Mary  lagging  behind, 
and  no  one  loses  the  whole  or  part  of  an  exercise.  We 
make  engagements  with  one  another  to  meet  at  certain 
places,  to  do  certain  things,  to  deliver  goods,  it  may  be, 
to  join  in  all  sorts  of  enterprises.  Everywhere  "punc- 
tuality is  the  soul  of  business,"  and  the  unpunctual  man 
will  not  be  tolerated  long  in  any  direction.  The  railroad 
train  will  not  delay  for  him,  and  men  who  have  business 
with  him  will  not  wish  to  continue  it  if  he  wastes  their 
time  by  keeping  them  waiting.  In  all  our  dealings  with 
each  other,  in  which  there  is  any  question  of  time, 
respect  and  courtesy  demand  that  we  be  on  time,  "  pat 
betwixt  too  early  and  too  late." 

III.  Orderliness  is  necessary  to  success  in  business. 
There  must  not  only  be  a  time  for  everything  to  begin 
and  to  end,  but  there  must  also  be  a  place  for  every- 
thing. In  a  well-managed  carpenter's  shop,  for  exam- 
ple, each  saw  and  hammer  and  file  has  its  hook  or  nail 
or  slot  where  it  belongs.  When  needed  it  is  taken 
from  that  place,  and  when  it  has  been  used  it  is  re- 
turned there.  No  time  is  then  wasted  in  looking  for  it 
here  and  there,  as  in  a  shop  where  the  workmen  are 
slack  and  careless. 

The  orderly  workman  begins  at  the  beginning  of  his 


WORK.  103 

work :  lie  keeps  to  one  job  at  a  time,  so  far  as  he  can, 
until  it  is  finished  :  then  he  takes  up  another.  He  ar- 
ranges his  work  beforehand  in  such  order  that  it  will 
require  the  least  outlay  of  time  and  strength  to  do  it 
well.  He  has  his  mind  on  his  business ;  all  his  energy 
and  intelligence  and  skill  he  directs  wisely,  so  as  to 
procure  the  largest  and  best  result. 

IV.  ISTot  only  should  every  worker  be  as  methodical 
and  systematic  as  possible,  for  his  own  good  and  the 
good  of  all,  skill  is  a  duty  for  him.  Here  is  a  certain 
thing  to  do,  to  raise  a  crop,  or  build  a  house,  or  manage 
a  railroad.  Since  man  is  an  intelligent  being  and  can 
know,  if  he  will,  many  of  the  causes  and  ways  of  things, 
the  farmer,  the  builder,  and  the  locomotive  engineer  are 
bound  to  understand  their  business :  each  should 
study  persistently  the  nature  of  the  forces  and  the 
materials  with  which  he  has  to  deal,  and  acquaint  him- 
self practically  with  the  methods  that  other  men  have 
used  to  attain  the  end  he  is  seeking  himself.  The  best 
way  of  doing  a  thing  does  not  come  by  chance  to  one 
who  is  ignorant  and  careless  ;  it  comes  to  those  who 
use  their  eyes  and  ears  and  their  whole  minds,  carefully 
and  patiently.  The  successful  worker  is  the  one  who 
concentrates  his  full  power  on  the  task  in  hand.  He 
wishes  to  do  the  most  good  work  with  the  largest  and 
best  result  inside  of  a  given  time  and  in  the  most  eco- 
nomical manner.  How  to  do  this  is  an  affair  requiring 
thought.  So  to  our  virtues  of  industry  and  punctuality 
and  order  and  economy,  we  need  to  add  all  the  know- 
ledge of  our  occupation  that  keen  observation  and  study 
of  books  or  life  can  give  us. 

Intelligence  is  a  duty,  as  well  as  perseverance,  for 
everybody.  Not  until  we  reach  the  limit  of  possible 
knowledge  or  training  can  we  say  that  we  have  done 
our  full  duty,  as  intellectual  beings,  to  the  work  that 
lies  before  us.  "  The  very  true  beginning  of  wisdom  is 
the  desire  of  discipline."     The  power  and  ability  that 


104  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

we  have  by  nature  are  very  well,  but  to  be  of  much  use 
or  profit  in  the  world,  they  must  be  trained :  they 
must  come  and  submit  themselves  to  learn  the  virtues 
of  work.  Our  human  society  stands  firm  because  of  the 
immense  amount  of  patient  work  that  is  done  day  after 
day  by  millions  of  workers  of  all  kinds  ;  and  it  advances 
in  knowledge  and  beauty  and  comfort  as  this  work  be- 
comes more  moral  and  more  intelligent.  The  idle,  the 
careless,  the  disorderly,  the  unwilling-to-learn  are  a 
burden  on  the  industrious,  the  careful,  the  orderly,  and 
the  intelligent ;  and  each  one  should  resolve  not  to 
be  such  a  burden,  but,  by  complying  with  the  laws  of 
good  work,  do  his  own  manly  part,  and  so  have  a  right 
to  enjoy  his  own  share. 


NOTES. 


There  is  no  lack  of  inspiring  examples  to  do  our  best  work  in 
the  lives  of  the  great  men  of  our  own  generation,  of  whom  the 
newspaper,  the  monthly  magazine,  and  contemporary  books  tell 
us.  Perhaps  the  most  forcible  instruction  from  biography  in 
the  virtues  of  work  is  based  upon  the  achievements  of  living 
men.  Their  word  has  often  telling  power,  as  when  Mr.  Edison, 
asked  for  advice  how  to  succeed,  answered :  "  Don't  look  at  the 
clock,"  i.  e.,  forget  yourself  in  your  work,  be  possessed  by  it. 

Work  is  always  to  be  disassociated  from  worry;  see  A.  K.  H. 
B.  on  A  Great  Evil  of  Modern  Times. 

"  One  lesson,  Nature,  let  me  learn  of  thee, 
Of  toil  unsevered  from  tranquillity." 

On  the  other  hand :  — 

"  Rest  is  not  quitting 

The  busy  career ; 
Rest  is  the  fitting 

Of  self  to  its  sphere." 

Read  from  Whittier's  "  Songs  of  Labor;  "  Captains  of  Industry, 
by  James  Parton,  two  series;  J.  F.  Clarke  and  J.  S.  Blackie  on 
Self-Culture;  and  Blessed  be  Drudgery,  by  W.  C.  Gannett  (it  is 


WORK.  105 

♦*  the  secret  of  all  culture,"  he  says).  "  Idleness,"  says  old  Burton, 
"  the  bane  of  body  and  mind,  the  nui-se  of  naughtiness,  the  chief 
author  of  all  mischief."  "Labor  is  man's  great  function;  the 
hardest  work  in  the  world  is  to  do  nothing  "      (Dr.  Dewey.) 

"  There  is  a  perennial  nobleness,  and  even  sacredness,  in  work. 
Were  he  never  so  benighted,  forgetful  of  his  high  calling,  there 
is  always  hope  in  a  man  that  .actually  and  earnestly  works;  in 
idleness  alone  is  there  perpetual  despair.  Work,  never  so  mam- 
monish, mean,  is  in  communication  witli  Nature;  the  real  desire 
to  get  work  done  will  itself  lead  one  more  and  more  to  truth,  to 
Nature's  appointments  and  regulations,  which  are  truth.  All 
true  work  is  sacred;  in  all  true  work,  were  it  but  true  hand- 
labor,  there  is  something  of  divineness.  Labor,  wide  as  the 
earth,  has  its  summit  in  heaven."     (Carlyle.) 

Work  is  of  the  mind  as  well  as  of  the  hand;  the  tendency  of 
civilization  is  set  forth  by  Sir  Thomas  More:  — 

"  The  Utopians,  when  nede  requireth,  are  liable  to  abide  and 
suffer  much  bodelie  laboure ;  els  they  be  not  greatly  desirous  and 
fond  of  it;  but  in  the  exercise  and  studie  of  the  mind  they  be 
never  wery.  .  .  .  For  whil,  in  the  institution  of  that  weale  pub- 
lique,  this  end  is  onelye  and  chiefely  pretended  and  mynded, 
that  what  time  may  jjossibly  be  spared  from  the  necessary  occu- 
pacions  and  affayres  of  the  commen  welth,  all  that  the  citizeins 
should  withdraw  from  the  bodely  service  to  the  free  libertye  of 
the  mind  and  garnishinge  of  the  same.  For  herein  they  sup- 
pose the  felicitye  of  this  liffe  to  consiste." 


CHAPTER  X. 
THE  LAW  OF  HONOR. 

The  moral  law,  we  have  seen,  is  the  law  which  de- 
clares the  proper  relations  of  human  beings  to  each 
other  in  personal  conduct.  Like  every  other  natural 
law,  it  is  disclosed  to  us  by  study  and  observation  of 
the  beings  whom  it  governs.  It  governs  them  because 
it  is  a  part  of  their  nature,  which  they  cannot  escape. 
Man  is  a  social  being,  and  if  he  would  live  in  society  as 
he  desires,  he  must  obey  the  laws  of  the  social  life  :  of 
these  laws  the  moral  law  is  a  most  important  part.  A 
portion  of  it  is  written  down  in  the  statute  law  of  the 
land,  and  is  carried  into  effect  against  wrong-doers  by 
courts  and  police  and  prisons. 

Another  part  is  recognized  in  this  or  that  country  as 
binding  on  all ;  but  men  do  not  judge  it  expedient  to 
pass  laws  concerning  it.  A  power  that  we  call  "  public 
opinion  "  enforces  certain  duties,  such  as  the  education 
of  a  man's  children  according  to  his  means,  without 
legal  penalties.  The  law  of  the  land  obliges  every  par- 
ent to  send  his  children  to  school  so  many  weeks  in  the 
year ;  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  this  must  be  done 
up  to  the  age  of  fourteen.  This  is  all  that  the  legisla- 
ture, or  the  State,  thinks  it  wise  to  attempt  in  the  way 
of  obliging  all  parents  to  educate  their  children.  But 
when  a  man  is  amply  able  to  send  his  children  to  the 
high  school  or  to  college,  and  they  wish  to  go,  public 
opinion  says  that  he  ought  to  send  them ;  and  so  much 
do  men,  in  general,  care  for  the  good  opinion  of  their 
fellow-men,  that  children  not  rarely  receive  this  further 
education  when  the  parents  themselves  do  not  admit 


THE  LAW  OF  HONOR.  107 

the  intellectual  need  of  it.  Public  opinion,  is,  however, 
a  very  variable  thing,  and  it  often  represents  a  sort  of 
compromise  between  all  kinds  and  degrees  of  private 
opinions,  when  it  concerns  a  moral  question.  There 
must  be  some  persons  whose  opinion  is  worth  more 
than  that  of  others  on  a  point  of  right  and  wrong,  just 
as  there  are  on  a  matter  of  art  or  science.  These  per- 
sons every  one  will  recognize  as  the  honorable  people, 
those  who  live  according  to  the  moral  law  of  honor. 

I.  There  are  two  very  opposite  senses  in  which  a  per- 
son may  be  "  a  law  to  himself."  A  man  may  be  willing 
and  ready  to  defy  and  disobey  the  moral  law  whenever 
and  wherever  he  thinks  he  can  do  so  safely.  If  the 
offence  he  has  in  mind  is  one  against  the  written  law, 
he  will  commit  it  in  case  he  thinks  himself  sure  not  to 
be  found  out,  or  in  case  he  cares  less  for  the  shame  of 
the  punishment  tlian  for  the  advantage  to  be  gained 
from  the  crime.  This  man's  law  is  his  own  self-interest, 
or  the  gratification  of  his  passions,  whether  for  his  in- 
terest or  not.  He  will  care  little  for  public  opinion  in 
respect  to  matters  of  Avhich  the  law  says  nothing.  So 
he  will  lie  and  cheat  and  steal  and  break  his  promises 
whenever  he  considers  it  to  be  for  his  own  advantage. 
He  will  rob  and  do  personal  violence,  perhaps  even 
commit  murder,  if  he  considers  himself  very  likely  to 
escape  punishment.  He  thus  puts  himself  outside  the 
moral  law  which  declares  these  deeds  wrong  in  them- 
selves, and  makes  his  own  will  his  law.  But  such  con- 
duct is  directed  against  the  very  life  of  human  society, 
which  would  go  to  pieces  if  it  were  practised  to  any 
great  extent.  Therefore  these  dangerous  classes,  the 
open  enemies  of  order  and  civilization  and  morality, 
must  be  kept  down.  Laws  are  passed  against  them  : 
the  constable  and  the  policeman,  the  criminal  courts, 
the  jails  and  the  prisons,  and  the  gallows  in  the  last 
resort,  are  employed  against  these  savages  and  barba- 
rians who  are  survivals  from  the  times  before  mo- 
rality. 


108  THE  LAWS   OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

Other  enemies  of  morality  are  those  men  who  are 
more  crafty  and  prey  on  their  fellow-men  by  taking 
advantage  of  the  imperfections  of  the  statute  law  to  de- 
fraud and  do  any  other  wrong  which  they  think  for 
their  own  interest.  They  do  not  kill,  or  rob  on  the 
highway  ;  but  they  make  war  on  their  kind  by  craft. 
Morality  is  to  them  simply  an  outside  restraint :  they 
cannot  be  trusted  to  do  right  when  to  do  wrong  would 
be  for  their  own  profit.  Both  these  classes,  the  violent 
and  the  crafty,  are  "  a  law  to  themselves  "  in  the  bad 
sense  that  they  reject  all  law  but  their  own  will. 

II.  At  the  other  extreme  in  human  society  stand 
those  men  and  women  who  are  a  law  to  themselves 
in  the  good  sense  of  the  phrase.  They  see  that  all  the 
laws  which  mankind  has  ever  made  are  but  clumsy  and 
imperfect  attempts  to  carry  out  the  full  moral  law  as 
the  highest  minds  and  the  best  hearts  perceive  and  feel 
it.  They  do  what  they  know  to  be  just,  not  because 
the  authorities  will  otherwise  punish  them,  but  because 
they  realize  that  justice  is  the  one  fit  thing  for  men  to 
do  to  one  another.  They  keep  the  peace  because  they 
love  peace  and  the  things  which  peace  brings.  They 
tell  the  truth  because  they  wish  to  live  themselves  and 
to  have  others  live,  at  all  times,  in  a  real  world ;  their 
word  does  not  need  to  be  supported  by  an  oath,  —  it  is 
always  to  be  relied  upon.  Their  verbal  promises  are  as 
good  as  written  contracts  made  before  witnesses  and 
under  penalty.  They  pay  regard  to  every  known  right 
of  others  because  they  feel  that  we  are  members  one  of 
another  in  society,  and  that  "  no  man  ever  hurt  himself 
save  through  another's  side." 

To  live  in  this  way  is  to  live  under  the  law  of 
honor.  Every  honorable  man  feels  bound  to  live  up  to 
his  fullest  knowledge  of  right,  without  regard  to  the 
statute  law  or  to  public  opinion,  which  are  satisfied  with 
a  lower  standard.  He  is  very  sure  that  both  are,  and 
must  be,  imperfect,  and  that  his  duty  is  to  remedy  their 


THE  LAW  OF  HONOR.  109 

imperfections  and  to  show  in  his  own  practice  a  nearer 
approach  to  what  is  demanded  by  the  full  moral  law. 
His  own  enlightened  conscience  is  his  guide  :  it  tells 
him  to  square  his  conduct  not  by  the  letter  of  morality, 
but  by  its  spirit.  "  Conscientiousness  "  means  having 
a  delicate,  conscience  and  paying  instant  heed  to  it,  in 
small  things  as  in  great  things.  To  be  conscientious, 
to  be  high-minded,  to  be  magnanimous,  to  be  honorable^ 
—  these  are  one  and  the  same  thing :  the  words  mark 
the  person  to  whom  morality  has  become  real  and  vital. 
The  conscientious  are  truthful  in  the  extreme  degree ; 
the  magnanimous  do  nothing  mean  by  taking  advantage 
of  the  weakness  or  the  mistakes  of  others  ;  the  honor- 
able are  themselves  the  highest  moral  law  incarnate. 
The  essence  of  honor  is  in  fixing  one's  eye  upon  the  re- 
sult to  character  of  any  action  and  then  acting  as  self- 
respect  and  kindness  dictate.  To  follow  the  law  of 
honor  is  the  ideal  of  morality ;  and  no  one  desiring  to 
live  the  right  life  should  be  satisfied  until  he  values  the 
moral  life  for  itself  as  the  highest  and  best  expression 
of  refined  human  nature :  then  he  is  one  of  the  truly 
honorable  of  the  earth. 

Any  practice  that  is  dishonorable,  however  common, 
bears  its  condemnation  in  itself  :  it  must  disappear  be- 
fore a  more  active  moral  sense,  a  better  instructed  pub- 
lic opinion,  or  more  thorough-going  legislation.  Every 
honorable  man  has  the  duty  laid  upon  him  of  raising 
the  standard  of  morality  in  his  business  or  profession. 
There  are  tricks  in  every  trade  which  do  not  cease  to 
be  evil  because  they  are  common ;  there  are  offences 
against  truth  in  every  profession,  which  are  none  the 
less  wrong  because  they  are  nearly  universal.  IVlorality 
and  business,  honor  and  trade,  must  be  kept  together. 
No  man  is  justified  in  saying  to  his  conscience,  prescrib- 
ing the  law  of  honor,  what  Frederick  the  Great  used  to 
say  to  his  people  demanding  a  reform  :  "  You  may  sa>/ 
what  you  like  :  I  will  do  what  I  like." 


110  THE  LAWS   OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

A  reputation  for  honorable  dealing  lias  a  high  busi- 
ness value  :  honor  pays  in  the  commercial  sense,  if  a 
man  will  trust  in  it,  in  the  long  run,  if  not  immediately. 
When  the  farmer  "  tops  off "  his  barrels  of  apples  or 
potatoes,  or  his  boxes  of  berries  ;  when  the  grocer  sells 
oleomargarine  for  butter ;  when  the  tailor  palms  off  an 
ill-made  suit  of  clothes  upon  a  near-sighted  person ; 
when  the  manufacturer  sells  shoddy  for  woollens,  they 
are  short-sighted.  Steady  custom  cannot  be  kept  by 
such  tricks.  A  reputation  for  honorable  dealing  is  of 
more  value  than  all  that  can  be  made  by  occasional  im- 
position. 

But  honor  pays  in  a  much  higher  sense.  One  of 
the  surest  foundations  of  morality  is  a  just  self-respect. 
A  man  who  has  lost  his  self-respect  cannot  be  trusted : 
he  cannot  trust  himself.  Dishonorable  practice  saps 
this  foundation :  it  introduces  a  kind  of  dry  rot  into 
the  moral  life.  When  some  unusual  strain  of  tempta- 
tion to  do  gross  wrong  comes  upon  a  man  who  has  been 
guilty  of  dishonorable  conduct,  perhaps  known  only  to 
himself,  he  will  probably  go  down,  as  the  great  Tay 
bridge  went  down  in  the  night,  because  of  some  flaw, 
carrying  with  it  hundreds  of  lives. 

The  justly  anxious  passenger  on  an  ocean  steamer, 
in  a  severe  storm,  asked  the  captain  if  the  vessel  could 
live  through  the  tempest.  "  If  any  ship  can,  this  one 
can,"  replied  the  captain ;  "  I  know  her  builder,  and  I 
know  that  she  was  built  on  honor."  That  is  a  good 
word  for  all :  Build  Life  on  Honor !  When  we  are 
children  at  home  we  cannot  begin  too  soon  to  make  our 
word  the  exact  counterpart  of  fact  so  far  as  we  know  it, 
and  our  promise  to  do  anything  the  assurance  of  honest 
performance.  If  we  break  any  precious  piece  of  glass 
or  furniture  about  the  house,  let  us  not  break  the  truth 
too  :  let  us  fear  that  damage  more  than  any  punishment 
that  can  come  upon  iis. 

In  the  school  we  can  build  life  on  honor,  by  refusing 


TUE  LAW  OF  HONOR.  Ill 

to  prompt,  or  to  be  prompted  by,  another  scholar  ;  we 
can  scorn  to  use  "  ponies,"  we  can  take  our  examinations 
fairly,  without  the  trick  of  scribbling  the  answers  before- 
hand on  our  cuffs  or  elsewhere  ;  when  we  have  done 
wrong,  we  can  take  our  punishment  manfully,  with- 
out trying  to  sneak  out  of  it  and  letting  some  inno- 
cent person  be  suspected  or  even  disciplined  for  it. 
When  we  leave  school  and  take  up  the  active  business 
of  life,  we  can  build  on  honorable  work,  done  carefully 
and  faithfully.  Let  no  one  need  to  watch  us  or  inspect 
our  performance  to  see  if  we  have  been  shortening  the 
quantity  or  "  scamping  "  the  quality  of  our  work.  We 
agree  to  work  certain  hours,  on  understood  conditions ; 
honor  bids  us  fill  these  hours  with  patient  work,  having 
a  single  eye  to  the  interest  of  our  employer  ;  it  bids  us 
live  up  to  every  condition  of  our  self-chosen  task. 

If  we  ourselves  become  employers,  building  life  on 
honor  -means  doing  justice  to  our  men,  paying  wages 
promptly  and  fully,  and  recognizing  and  rewarding 
merit.  It  means  dealing  justly  in  every  trade,  giving 
fair  measure  and  just  weight  and  due  quality.  If  our 
chosen  business  has  a  certain  dishonorable  practice  in  it, 
it  is  our  duty  to  try  and  "  reform  it  altogether  "  if  we 
can ;  no  one  knows  how  much  he  can  do  to  improve  the 
morality  of  his  trade  or  business  or  profession  until  he 
has,  very  earnestly,  tried.  Honor  forbids  cheating  an 
individual.  It  forbids  cheating  a  corporation  as  well ; 
if  the  "  corporation  has  no  soul,"  this  is  not  a  suf- 
ficient reason  why  you  should  not  have  a  conscience  ! 
Pay  your  fare,  then,  if  you  take  your  ride  in  the  horse- 
car,  or  the  steam-car ;  the  corporation  has  fulfilled  its 
part  of  the  contract  in  transporting  you  ;  fulfil  your 
part  by  paying  for  the  ride.  It  is  dishonorable  to  take 
advantage  of  the  mistake  or  oversight  of  those  with 
whom  you  have  dealings ;  in  making  change,  or  ex- 
change, the  honorable  man  takes  and  keeps  only  what 
belongs  to  him. 


112  TUE  LAWS   OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

The  honorable  lawyer  seeks,  first  of  all,  to  have  jus- 
tice done,  not  to  pervert  it  in  the  interest  of  a  guilty- 
client,  that  the  innocent  may  suffer.  The  honorable 
physician  ijrepares  himself  for  his  difficult  profession 
by  long  study,  and  despises  the  bogus  diploma.  The 
honorable  clergyman  respects  the  dignities  of  his  profes- 
sion, and  in  all  his  dealings  follows  the  strictest  code  of 
personal  morals.  The  honorable  statesman  makes  only 
pledges  that  he  intends  to  keep,  and  builds  "  platforms  " 
on  which  he  means  to  stand. 

Building  life  on  honor  is  building  it  like  a  good  mas- 
ter-builder, on  honest  day-labor,  not  on  a  contract  out  of 
which  we  seek  to  profit  as  much  as  possible.  In  the 
end  it  is  always  better  to  be,  than  to  pretend  to  be. 
We  are  to  respect  the  law  ;  we  are  to  respect  public 
opinion ;  but,  most  of  all,  we  are  to  respect  our  careful 
consciences.  "  Where  you  feel  your  honor  grip,  let  that 
aye  be  your  border,"  beyond  which  you  will  not  go. 


NOTES. 

Magnanimity  is  the  end  to  be  sought  in  all  discourse  of 
honor.  The  mind  great  in  virtue,  if  not  in  talent,  is  strong, 
healthy,  and  serene ;  but  parvanimity  implies  weakness,  disease, 
and  distress.  "  This  is  a  manly  world  we  live  in.  Our  rever- 
ence is  good  for  nothing,  if  it  does  not  begin  with  self-respect." 
(O.  W.  Holmes.) 

"  The  wisest  man  could  ask  no  more  of  fate 
Than  to  be  simple,  modest,  manly,  true, 
Safe  from  the  many,  honored  by  the  few ; 
Nothing  to  court  in  Church,  or  World,  or  State, 
But  inwardly  in  secret  to  be  great" 

(Lowell.) 

Some  have  complained  that  in  the  human  world  disease  is 
catching  while  health  is  not.  This  is  a  mistake;  health  is  at 
least  as  contagious  as  disease.    But  in  the  moral  sphere  the  truth 


THE  LAW  OF  HONOR.  113 

is  obvious  that  honor  calls  out  honor,  the  best  way  to  advance  in 
morality  being  to  take  the  forward  step  yourself,  relying  on  the 
innate  disposition  of  men  to  do  as  they  are  done  by.  See  De 
Quincey's  story  of  A  Noble  Revenge. 

"  Be  noble  !  and  the  nobleness  that  lies 
In  other  men,  sleeping  but  never  dead, 
Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thy  own." 

The  honorable  persons  in  a  community  are  the  saving  rem- 
nant, and  they  are  never  satisfied  until  public  opinion  inclines  in 
favor  of  the  just  way  which  they  advocate  and  practice.  Moral 
progress  usually  begins  with  the  exceptionally  conscientious  in- 
dividual. He  first  persuades  a  few  ;  in  time  the  few  become 
many,  and  the  public  opinion,  which  governs  all  modern  states, 
soon  expresses  itself  in  law,  if  it  is  deemed  expedient. 

The  "  law  of  honor,"  criticised  by  Porter  (Elements  of  Moral 
Science),  is  the  technical  code  prevailing  in  a  certain  class  or 
profession  ;  to  this  his  objections  are  well  founded.  But  the  law 
of  honor  here  set  forth  is  limited  by  no  artificial  or  class  distinc- 
tions.   Wordsworth's  lines  describe  it:  — 

"  Say,  what  is  honor  ?     'T  is  the  finest  sense 
Of  justice  which  the  human  mind  can  frame, 
Intent  each  lurking  frailty  to  disclaim, 
And  guard  the  way  of  life  from  all  offence, 
Suffered  or  done." 


CHAPTER  XI. 
PERSONAL   HABITS. 

The  greater  part  of  morality  has  reference  directly  to 
our  relations  with  other  persons.  But  a  large  portion 
of  our  dvity  concerns  things  that  we  are  to  do  for  our- 
selves, as  no  one  else  can  do  them  so  well  for  us,  and 
that  affect  others  only  indirectly. 

I.  Each  of  us  has  to  care  for  his  own  person.  Clean- 
liness of  body  and  neatness  in  dress  are  matters  of  in- 
dividual ethics,  which  we  have  to  learn  to  attend  to  as 
early  as  we  can  in  life.  Such  habits  as  frequent  bath- 
ing and  cleaning  the  teeth  are  parts  of  that  physical 
virtue  in  wliich  every  human  being  should  be  diligent. 
Bodily  health  is  so  important  in  every  way,  in  its  bear- 
ings on  our  own  happiness  and  the  welfare  of  others, 
that  we  should  make  it  no  small  part  of  the  right  life 
to  conform  all  our  physical  habits  to  the  rules  of  health. 
Some  say  that  it  is  "  a  sin  to  be  sick  ;  "  certainly,  very 
much  of  the  illness  and  disease  in  the  world  is  avoid- 
able. If  this  were  prevented,  as  it  might  be,  then  a 
great  addition  would  result  to  the  comfort  and  pros- 
perity of  mankind. 

Among  the  foremost  of  the  laws  of  health  is  Tem- 
perance, or  moderation  in  eating  and  drinking.  Eating 
to  excess,  not  for  the  sake  of  satisfying  the  natural 
desire  but  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  gratifying  an  appe- 
tite artificially  stimulated,  is  a  great  evil.  Gluttony, 
beside  causing  immediate  distress,  brings  on  many  dis- 
eases ;  it  unfits  one  for  mental  occupation,  and  it  makes 
one  careless  of  the  welfare  of  others  ;  it  puts  the  animal 
above  the  intellectual  part  of  us,  where  it  should  not 


PERSONAL  HABITS.  115 

be.  Enough  is  not  only  *'  as  good  as  a  feast,"  but  better, 
for  it  leaves  us  able  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  the  mind, 
which  the  heavily-loaded  stomach  will  not  allow. 

Intemperance  is  so  much  more  plainly  and  widely 
injurious  in  the  matter  of  what  we  drink  that  the  word 
is  commonly  taken  to  mean  this  one  kind  of  bodily  ex- 
cess. We  are  not  in  much  danger  of  drinking  water  to 
excess,  or  those  common  beverages  of  the  table,  tea  and 
coffee,  although  here  we  sometimes  need  to  be  on  our 
guard.  It  is  in  the  direction  of  those  intoxicating 
drinks  which  are  used,  more  or  less,  all  over  the  world, 
to  produce  agreeable  sensations,  that  men  are  most  of 
all  intemperate.  So  immense  and  wide-reaching  are  the 
bad  effects  of  indulgence  in  these  intoxicating  liquors 
that  it  is  altogether  safest  to  abstain  totally  from  using 
them  as  a  beverage,  taking  them  only  in  cases  of  sick- 
ness or  absolute  need.  They  are  artificial  stinuilants, 
and  the  body  is  usually  sounder  and  better  off  without 
them.  The  drunkard  puts  an  enemy  in  his  mouth  that 
steals  away  his  brains  ;  he  becomes  insane  for  the  time, 
and  moral  law  has  no  power  over  him  until  he  becomes 
sober.  Through  continued  indulgence  he  loses  his  self- 
respect  ;  he  comes  to  care  only  for  the  gratification  of  his 
debased  appetite.  The  result  is  waste  and  ruin  to  him- 
self and  to  all  who  are  dependent  upon  him.  Loss,  un- 
happiness,  and  misfortune  of  a  hundred  kinds  attend 
upon  drunkenness.  It  has  been  well  said  that  Debt 
and  drink  are  the  two  great  devils  of  modern  life. 
Total  abstinence,  then,  from  the  use  of  intoxicating 
liquors  as  a  beverage,  is  the  part  of  wisdom  and  virtue. 

Less  injurious,  but  still  to  be  shunned  as  an  unclean 
and  wasteful  habit,  is  the  use  of  tobacco,  especially  in 
the  worst  way,  —  chewing.  The  frequent  use  of  tobacco 
is  apt  to  lead  to  drinking,  and  it  is  in  itself  a  habit  bad 
for  the  body  and  bad  for  the  mind ;  increasing  refine- 
ment should  put  an  end  to  it. 

One  may  be  intemperate  in  work,  in  not  regarding 


116  TUE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

the  limit  which  his  strength  and  his  health  fix  for  him. 
However  good  the  motive,  overwork  is  to  be  blamed  as 
unwise  ;  injurious  to  one's  self,  it  spoils  the  temper,  and 
causes  more  unhappiness  than  it  can  cure.  Too  much 
study  is  worse  even  than  too  much  play  for  the  growing 
boy  and  girl.  The  course  of  wisdom  for  old  and  young 
is  to  find  how  much  work  of  hand  or  head  one  can  do 
without  exhaustion,  and  stop  there. 

Of  physical  virtue  men  in  ancient  Greece  used  to 
think  much,  and  the  men  of  the  civilized  world  are  to- 
day concerning  themselves  much  about  it.  The  sound 
body  is  always  the  first  thing,  in  order  of  time,  to  attend 
to  ;  the  sound  mind  shows  itself  such  in  asking  for 
a  sound  body  as  its  ready  and  capable  servant  and 
helper.  To  balance  work  and  play  ;  to  keep  every  nat- 
ural appetite  true  to  its  proper  ofiice ;  to  be  clean  and 
pure  and  active  and  sound  bodily,  —  this  is  a  great 
matter  in  human  life,  for  without  physical  virtue  all 
other  \nrtues  lack  a  strong  friend.  To  physical  sound- 
ness some  kind  of  regular  bodily  work  or  exercise  is 
indispensable. 

II.  Next  comes  intellectual  virtue,  the  duty  of  cul- 
tivating our  minds  so  that  Ave  can  "  see  straight  and 
think  clear."  The  chief  glory  of  man  is  his  intellect : 
the  very  word,  "  man,"  is  said  to  mean  "  the  thinker." 
In  every  civilized  state  the  education  of  the  people  is  a 
vital  matter ;  it  is  especially  such  here  in  our  own  coun- 
try. Nature  will  look  after  our  bodily  growth,  if  we 
will  let  her  have  her  own  way  and  not  hinder  her  by 
bad  habits.  But  our  minds  need  more  attention,  so 
that  we  may  start  right  in  life  ;  the  public  schools  are 
built,  and  we  go  to  them  as  boys  and  girls  that  we  may 
learn  the  elements  of  knowledge,  and  begin  to  use  our 
minds  capably.  We  are  steadily  growing  intellectually, 
if  we  spend  our  time  faithfully  in  school.  When  we 
leave  school,  whether  it  be  the  grammar  school,  the 
high  school,  the  college,  or  the  professional  school,  we 


PEUSONAL  HABITS.  117 

are  more  free  to  fix  our  own  hours  and  plans  of  study. 
But  we  are  not  intellectually  virtuous,  we  do  not  show 
ourselves  possessed  of  strong  and  active  intellect,  unless 
we  continue  to  cultivate  our  minds  to  the  extent  of  our 
ability  as  long  as  we  live.  One  way  to  do  this  is  by 
mastering  our  work  or  business,  whatever  it  is,  by 
studying  it  in  practice,  and  by  reading  what  others  have 
found  out  concerning  it.  Every  art  has  its  science,  and 
we  should  never  be  satisfied  to  be  mere  hand-workers 
or  to  travel  round  and  round  the  same  dull  routine. 
Art  and  science  are  inexhaustible,  and  the  pleasures  of 
the  active  mind  are  very  pure  and  high  and  satisfying. 
Whatever  one's  intellectual  ability  may  be,  he  should 
give  it  lifelong  cultivation,  as  a  matter  of  duty  to 
himself  and  to  others. 

We  can  do  the  most  for  others  when  we  make  the 
most  of  our  own  ability ;  whether  we  have  positive 
"talent"  or  not,  it  is  a  duty  laid  upon  all  to  think 
soundly,  that  we  may  act  wisely  and  rightly.  The  mis- 
fortunes of  mankind  are  largely  due  to  insufficiency  in 
the  knowledge  which  might  be  ours,  did  we  strive  for 
it,  and  to  vices  of  the  mind  such  as  wilful  blindness 
and  obstinacy  in  the  face  of  facts,  and  loose  thinking. 
These  troubles  might  be  avoided  largely  if  we  remem- 
ber that  intellectual  virtue  is  a  great  part  of  right-doing. 
In  order  to  do  the  right  we  must  first  know  the  right, 
and  we  shall  not  know  it  if  we  are  content  to  be  foolish 
or  ignorant.  Always  to  be  willing  to  learn,  to  be  fair  and 
candid,  to  defer  to  facts  and  the  laws  of  facts,  to  try  to 
think  all  around  a  subject  and  deep  into  it,  to  discuss 
disputed  matters  with  good  temper  and  a  single  desire 
to  get  at  the  truth,  —  these  are  some  of  the  intellectual 
virtues  which  have  a  most  important  part  to  play  in 
our  life.  In  the  common  schools  we  cannot  go  far 
beyond  teachableness;  but  this  is  the  beginning  of 
true  intellectual  virtue. 
\   III.  Much  of  our  most  valuable   education  we  get 


118  '     THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

through  the  work  we  have  to  do  in  order  to  live  and 
enjoy  life.  The  training  of  our  will  by  the  discipline 
of  school,  of  business,  of  regular  employment  of  any 
kind,  is  necessary  if  our  natural  powers  are  to  do  their 
best  work.  We  have  spoken  of  "  the  virtues  of  work  " 
under  another  head.  Here  we  may  mention  them  again 
with  reference  chieiiy  to  the  person  who  practises  them. 
"  Prudence  "  is  a  word  which  marks  the  application  of 
mind  to  work  and  life.  A  shortened  form  of  providence 
(foresight),  it  implies  the  training  of  the  eye  of  the 
mind  to  look  forward  that  we  may  prepare  in  the  pres- 
ent for  the  future.  It  is  a  great  intellectual  and  practi- 
cal aptitude  to  be  able  to  do  this.  The  wisely  prudent 
man  is  self-denying  to-day  that  he  may  not  be  in  danger 
of  starving  or  some  only  less  severe  misfortune  next 
month  or  next  year  ;  he  is  economical  because  he  knows 
that  every  little  counts  in  the  end :  he  takes  a  long  look 
ahead,  and,  like  a  good  chess-player,  adjusts  his  moves 
to  this  view. 

Every  man  who  wishes  to  think  clearly  and  act 
wisely  must  be  aware  that  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles 
to  both  of  these  excellences  is  indulgence  in  bad  tem- 
per. When  we  are  peevish  and  captious,  or  when  we 
are  in  a  positive  passion,  we  cannot  see  straight,  we 
cannot  think  clearly,  we  cannot  do  justly.  We  need 
to  discipline  our  natural  temper,  then,  to  take  account 
of  ourselves,  to  realize,  from  our  own  knowledge  or 
from  what  others  tell  us,  the  chief  faults  to  which 
we  are  most  exposed,  the  principal  weaknesses  of  our 
minds  and  the  deficiencies  in  our  previous  training,  that 
we  may  by  earnest  self-culture  do  away  with  all  these 
(oftentimes  we  think  them  points  of  strength),  and  be- 
come strong  by  self-control.  Suppose  that  we  think 
twice  before  acting  once  ;  that  we  stop  long  enough  to 
count  twenty  before  saying  the  sharp  or  bitter  word 
that  is  on  our  tongue.  Tlie  word  will  be  kinder  and 
wiser !  the  deed  will  be  better !     The  patience  we  show 


PERSONAL  HABITS.  119 

in  training  a  dog  or  a  horse  ;  the  pains  we  bestow  upon 
our  own  bodily  habits  when  "  in  training  "  for  a  race  or 
a  match-game,  —  these  are  a  type  of  the  attention  and 
the  care  that  we  sliould  give  to  the  training  of  our 
tongues  and  our  tempers  in  tlie  ways  of  sweetness  and 
light. 

We  have  different  temperaments  by  nature  :  some 
persons  are  constitutionally  more  lively,  cheerful,  and 
fond  of  society  than  others.  In  our  judgments  upon 
others  and  on  ourselves  we  cannot  properly  ask  that  all 
shall  act  and  talk  alike  ;  each  one  must  be  allowed  to 
be  himself.  But  as  man  is  a  social  being,  a  degree  of 
cheerfulness  and  sociability  is  incumbent  upon  all  in 
ordinary  life.  Cheerfulness  may  not  be  in  itself  a  vir- 
tue, but  it  is  a  natural  grace  ;  a  happy  and  pleasant  dis- 
position may  not  be  a  duty  for  every  one,  but  all  ac- 
knowledge its  charjn.  In  the  common  social  relations, 
then,  at  home  and  at  school,  for  instance,  we  do  wisely 
to  cultivate  beauty  in  action.  jModesty,  cheerfulness, 
and  kindliness  in  little  things  of  manner  belong  to  the 
beautiful.  The  "  gentleman  "  and  the  "  lady  "  show 
the  excellence  of  relinement  in  conduct.  Courtesy, 
which  once  meant  the  manners  of  court  where  the  no- 
bility lived  in  wealth  and  leisure,  is  the  flower  of  right- 
doing,  a  flower  which  any  one  may  cultivate.  Strength 
is  one  of  the  two  things  which  all  men  desire.  Tlie 
righteous  action  is  usually  that  which  requires  the  most 
real  strength :  moral  courage,  for  instance,  is  the  high- 
est kind  of  courage.  But  Beauty,  the  other  thing  uiu- 
versally  desired,  comes  into  human  actions  with  kind- 
ness. When  it  takes  the  form  of  politeness  to  all  with 
Avhom  one  is  brought  into  contact,  of  a  gracious  cour- 
tesy to  the  nearer  circle  of  one's  acquaintances  and 
friends,  and  of  personal  affection  for  the  nearest  of  all, 
"the  Ought,  Duty,  is  one  thing  with  Science,  with 
Beauty,  and  with  Joy." 


120  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 


NOTES. 

"Our  work,"  says  Montaigne,  "is  not  to  train  a  soul  by  itself 
alone,  nor  a  body  by  itself  alone,  but  to  train  a  man  ;  and  iii  man 
soul  and  body  can  never  be  divided."  The  right  care  of  the 
body  includes  some  daily  work  or  exercise  ;  abstinence  from  sen- 
suality and  intemperance  ;  regularity  in  eating  and  sleeping  ; 
cleanliness  ;  training  of  the  eye  and  hand  ;  the  acquirement  of 
physical  skill  in  our  particular  trade  or  craft,  if  we  follow  one, 
and  the  harmonious  development  of  all  the  bodily  powers.  Books 
of  instruction  in  physical  virtue  are  nowadays  very  plentiful,  and 
it  is  not  necessary  to  single  out  any  here  for  special  mention. 
"  The  first  duty  of  every  man  is  to  be  a  good  animal." 

"  Intellectual  virtue  "  brings  up  the  vast  subject  of  education 
in  general,  —  that  which  schools  give  us  and  that  which  we  give 
ourselves.  The  care  of  the  mind  is  more  apt  to  be  neglected 
by  good  people  than  it  should  be.  Much  bad  temper  is  due  to 
ill-advised  bodily  habits  ;  so  also  much  wrong  proceeds  from 
carelessness  in  finding  out  the  truth,  the  mental  indolence  which 
is  satisfied  with  good  mtentions,  when  sound  thoughts  are  needed 
almost  as  much  to  bring  about  welfare.  Self-culture,  in  the 
sense  of  continual  progress  in  knowledge  and  in  the  power  of 
reasoning  well,  is  within  the  reach  of  all  in  this  age  of  books. 
"  Pegging  away  "  at  one's  own  mental  deficiencies  will  produce 
astonishing  results.  If  only  an  hour  or  a  half-hour  a  day  is 
spent  on  some  really  great  book,  instead  of  being  nearly  wasted 
on  the  newspaper,  the  result  of  a  few  months'  perseverance  is 
most  encouraging.  It  is  in  the  direction  of  self-education  (the 
best  kind  of  all)  that  biographies  help  us  greatly.  To  get  the 
utmost  profit  from  them,  one  should  make  a  personal  application 
to  himself  of  the  example  of  virtue  set  by  the  man  or  woman 
whose  actual  career  is  portrayed,  and  ask  if  there  is  not  some- 
thing especially  adapted  to  himself  in  the  methods  of  self-dis- 
cipline described.  Advice  that  we  give  ourselves,  incited  by  the 
record  of  a  true  man's  life,  comes  with  tenfold  pov/er  ;  it  is  the 
best  of  all  counsel. 

The  allusion  in  the  last  paragraph  of  this  chapter  is  to  the 
following  words  of  Rev.  F.  H.  Hedge,  D.  D.  :  — 

"  There  are  frwo  things  which  all  men  reverence  who  are 
capable  of  reverence,  —  strictly  speaking,  only  two  :  the  one  is 


PERSONAL  HABITS.  121 

beauty,  the  other  power,  —  power  and  beauty  ;  man  is  so  consti- 
tuted that  he  must  reverence  these  so  far  and  so  fast  as  he  can 
apprehend  them.  And  so  far  and  so  fast  as  human  culture  ad- 
vances, men  will  see  that  holiness  is  beauty,  and  goodness, 
power." 


CHAPTEE  XII. 
OUR  COUNTRY. 

I.  Patriotism.  We  have  spoken  of  the  duties  that 
we  owe  to  the  family,  the  school,  and  society  in  general. 
The  family  is  a  small  society  into  which  we  are  born 
and  in  which  we  grow  up :  its  obligations  are  the  strong- 
est, even  as  the  ties  it  makes  between  human  beings  are 
the  closest.  In  other  associations  of  men,  each  having 
a  special  object,  —  as  when  we  make  part  of  a  school,  of 
a  business  tirm,  or  of  a  society  for  the  advancement  of 
some  reform,  —  we  have  special  duties  according  to  the 
end  and  aim  of  the  association.  But  there  is  a  larger 
kind  of  association  of  men  than  the  family  or  the  school, 
or  business  partnership  or  the  reform  society,  —  to  name 
no  others.  It  is  the  natural  grouping  of  great  bodies 
of  human  beings,  according  to  their  race  or  their  coun- 
try, into  Nations  or  States.  These  may  include  mil- 
lions of  people,  living  under  one  common  law,  enjoying 
the  benefits  of  the  same  government,  and  bound  to- 
gether by  the  same  great  duties  to  it. 

Here  in  the  United  States  of  America,  as  the  name 
shows,  we  use  the  word  "  State  "  in  a  special  sense  fco 
mean  Massachusetts  or  Pennsylvania  or  California,  for 
instance,  all  the  different  States  being  united  in  what  is 
called  a  federal  government  to  make  the  Nation.  The 
distinction  is  very  important  politically  in  our  country 
between  the  State  government  and  the  National  govern- 
ment. But  it  is  a  distinction  made  for  practical  conve- 
nience, and  it  does  not  affect  the  fundamental  notion  of 
the  State  as  the  association  of  men  under  one  govern- 
ment.    When  we  speak  of  the  State  here  then,  we  may 


OUR   COUNTRY.  123 

intend  sometimes  a  particular  State  of  tlie  Union  in 
which  we  live  and  sometimes  the  Nation,  —  the  United 
States ;  but  we  always  mean  a  great  association  of  hu- 
man beings  for  political  ends.  Whatever  name  it  may 
bear,  the  State,  large  or  small,  is  the  supreme  earthly 
power  over  each  and  every  person  in  it.  Usually,  it  is 
an  association  of  multitudes  of  people  of  the  same  race 
in  one  particular  land,  —  their  native  country,  —  as 
with  the  French  in  France  or  the  Italians  in  Italy.  In 
our  own  land  we  are  a  people  made  up  of  many  races ; 
but  we  are  still  one  people,  living  in  one  country  and 
subject  to  one  government. 

We  Americans  cannot  be  patriots  after  the  manner 
of  men  who  live  in  a  small  country  with  a  king  over 
them  to  whom  they  owe  loyalty,  and  whose  will  is 
largely  law  to  them.  Oui-  country  is  very  great  in  size, 
and  each  one  of  us  is  part  of  the  power  that  rules  it  all. 
As  the  Italian  is  loyal  to  the  king,  or  the  German  to  the 
emperor,  we  have  to  be  loyal  to  the  people.  For  the 
great  American  idea  is  that  "  The  people  rule."  Gov- 
ernment is  here  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the 
people,  as  Theodore  Parker  and  Abraham  Lincoln  have 
said.  This  is  the  democratic  principle  which  is  carried 
out  in  a  republican  form  of  government.  The  Ameri- 
can patriot  is  one  who  is  loyal  to  this  great  princi])le  of 
equal  rights  and  equal  duties,  and  will  give  his  life,  if 
need  be,  to  aid  the  government  which  stands  to  defend 
it.  Our  country  has  a  right  to  anything  we  can  give  : 
nothing  tliat  we  can  give  her  is  equal  to  all  that  she 
secures  to  us,  —  our  life,  our  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  So  when  our  country  is  in  danger,  from  a 
foreign  foe  or  from  civil  war,  it  is  the  simplest,  plain- 
est and  foremost  of  all  duties  for  each  and  every  citi- 
zen to  be  ready  to  take  iip  aims  in  her  defence.  For 
her  defence  means  the  defence  of  all  that  we  hold  dear, 
—  family,  home,  friends,  our  great  institutions,  our  high 
principles,  our  inspiring  ideas  of  human  brotherhood. 


124  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

We  will  not  Scay  "  Our  Country,  right  or  wrong  !  "  in 
dealing  with  foreign  nations,  but  Our  Country  for- 
ever ;  we  will  keep  it  safe  and  hold  it  right !  In 
time  of  war  our  native  land  must  iirst  be  defended 
against  every  assault :  in  time  of  peace  it  must  be  made 
the  home  of  justice.  When  we  see  the  veterans  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  marching  through  the  city 
streets,  some  of  them  bearing  the  tattered  flags  which 
once  they  carried  through  the  smoke  and  fiery  hail  of 
battle,  we  loudly  cheer  these  standards,  and  our  blood 
thrills,  for  the  flag  is  the  sign  of  Our  Country,  and  we 
feel  that,  like  those  war-stained  men,  we,  too,  would 
follow  the  flag  to  save  the  State.  In  great  love  for 
man,  for  the  cause  of  our  fatherland,  we,  too,  would  dare 
everything. 

"  Though  Love  repine  and  Reason  chafe, 
There  comes  a  voice  without  reply  : 
'T  is  man's  perdition  to  be  safe, 

When  for  the  Truth  he  ought  to  die." 

Happily,  in  our  peaceful  land,  the  call  for  such  su- 
preme devotion  rarely  comes.  Whenever  it  has  come,  it 
has  always  been  heeded  by  the  great  mass  of  men,  who 
show  how  natural  and  right,  how  sweet  and  beautiful 
it  is  to  die  for  their  country.     Rare,  indeed,  is  the  man, 

"  With  soul  so  dead, 
Who  never  to  himself  has  said 
'  This  is  my  own,  my  native  land.'  " 

And  when  we  say  it,  we  feel  that  our  country  has  a  su- 
preme claim  upon  us.  It  is  the  largest  part  of  the 
whole  human  race  the  thought  of  which  moves  any  but 
great  and  exceptional  natures  to  self-sacrifice.  We  may 
be  sure,  too,  that  he  will  love  all  mankind  best  who 
loves  his  country  best,  and  by  his  devotion  makes  it  the 
strongest  helper  of  all  the  sons  of  earth. 

Men  are  more  wont  to  feel  deeply  patriotic  in  time  of 
war  than  in  time  of  peace.  The  thought  of  our  whole 
country  as  above  party  and  creed,  above  Korth  or  South 


OLA'   COUNTRY.  125 

or  East  or  West,  tinds  us  and  moves  us  most  profoundly 
when  the  welfare  of  the  whole  country  is  visibly  threat- 
ened. In  time  of  peace,  by  far  the  longer  time  of  the 
two,  we  are  thinking  mainly  about  our  family,  our  busi- 
ness, our  local  interests,  and  of  the  things  in  general 
which  are  apt  to  divide  one  section  or  one  State  from 
another.  The  main  duty  of  the  citizen  in  peace  is  to 
save  the  State,  not  from  destruction  from  without,  but 
from  error  and  wrong-doing  within.  Patriotism  then 
takes  another  form,  as  important  to  the  welfare  of  all 
as  volunteering  for  the  battle-field. 

II.  Political  Duty  is  this  other  form  of  patriotism, 
the  duty,  that  is,  of  doing  one's  part  in  the  government 
of  our  country,  in  State  and  Nation.  Every  man  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age  has  the  right  to  vote  for  other 
men  who  shall  represent  him,  i.  e.,  stand  for  him,  in  the 
work  of  making  and  administering  the  laws.  Each 
man  is,  therefore,  a  ruler  in  this  country.  His  power 
and  right  as  a  voter  brings  along  with  it  a  very  plain 
diifi/  to  exercise  the  right  and  use  the  power  for  the 
good  of  all.  This  signifies  to  the  American  voter  four 
things  :  He  should  keep  himself  well-informed  on  public 
questions.  He  should  do  his  part  by  his  words  toward 
constituting  a  right  public  opinion,  made  up  of  a  great 
sum  of  single  opinions  become  powerful  by  union.  He 
should  vote  according  to  his  own  convictions  of  truth 
and  justice.  He  should  not,  as  a  rule,  seek  office,  but  he 
should  be  ready  to  hold  it  for  the  public  good  when 
called  to  it  by  the  voice  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

There  are,  usually,  in  a  free  country  some  great  ques- 
tions of  public  policy  on  which  political  parties  are 
formed.  One  party  advocates  a  certain  line  of  action  ; 
another  would  do  differently  if  entrusted  with  the 
power  of  government.  In  our  country  there  are  now 
opposite  views  about  the  tariff,  for  instance,  about  the 
coinage  of  silver,  and  about  the  proper  relations  of  the 
National   government  to  the    State   governments.     As 


126  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

eacli  man  by  liis  single  vote  can  affect  the  policy  wliich 
is  at  last  adopted  by  Congress,  he  should  cast  this  vote 
intelligently.  He  should  enlighten  himself  as  to  tariff's 
and  free  trade,  for  example,  and  vote  so  that  his  con- 
viction as  to  what  the  welfare  of  the  country  demands 
may  be  carried  into  effect.  He  should  not  be  satisfied 
to  take  his  opinions  from  the  newspapers  of  the  party 
with  which  he  usually  votes,  and  let  them  do  his  think- 
ing for  him,  talking  and  voting  as  they  say.  He  sliould 
read  books  written  by  able  men  who  are  not  partisans, 
on  the  particular  subjects  in  debate,  and  he  should  in- 
form himself,  generally,  about  the  history  of  our  coun- 
try, and  have  some  knowledge,  the  more  the  better,  of 
the  sciences  of  politics  and  economics.  The  intelligent 
citizen  who  knows  for  what  he  is  voting,  and  why,  is 
the  mainstay  of  the  Republic.  The  illiterate  voter 
who  does  not  know  what  he  is  voting  for,  or  why,  is  the 
greatest  danger  to  free  institutions. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  citizen  who  has  thus  formed 
an  intelligent  opinion  on  political  matters  to  do  his  part 
in  creating  and  sustaining  a  sound  public  opinion.  This 
he  can  do  by  feeling  and  showing  an  interest  in  politics 
in  the  good  sense  of  the  word :  this  is  not  a  selfish 
scramble  for  oflice,  but  the  discussion  and  settlement  of 
great  public  questions  according  to  reason  and  right, 
through  men  of  ability  and  character.  Especially  in 
the  case  of  reform  movements  in  political  life  is  it  the 
duty  of  each  individual  to  stand  up  for  what  he  honestly 
believes  to  be  the  right,  and  to  express  himself  openly 
and  freely  in  favor  of  the  specific  measure  which  would 
save  the  Republic  from  harm.  The  history  of  all  re- 
forms proves  how  important  is  the  duty  resting  upon 
the  private  citizen  to  use  his  right  of  free  speech. 
Slavery  was  abolished  in  this  country  as  the  final  result 
of  agitation  by  individuals  endeavoring  to  arouse  the 
conscience  of  the  people.  So  it  will  be  with  the  politi- 
cal evils  of  our  own  day  :  the  faithful  conscience  of 


OUR  COUNTRY.  127 

the  individual  is  the  power  which  is  to  destroy  them, 
sooner  or  later. 

No  man  who  has  the  right  to  vote  has  a  moral  right 
to  refrain  from  voting,  whenever  it  is  possible  for  him. 
The  plainest  part  of  his  political  duty,  bound  up  with 
his  very  right,  is  to  exercise  the  suffrage.  He  is  not 
doing  his  duty  to  his  country  when  he  stays  away  from 
the  polls  on  election  day,  whatever  the  real  cause  may 
be,  —  indifference,  contempt,  or  absorption  in  business 
or  pleasure.  The  one  method  that  avails  in  our  coun- 
try for  procuring  just  laws  and  honest  officials  is  to 
vote  for  capable  and  worthy  men.  Under  this  method 
each  vote  counts,  and  each  voter  should  see  that  his 
own  vote  is  thrown.  He  is  not  responsible  when  the 
opposite  party  succeeds  in  electing  a  bad  man  or  in  car- 
rying a  wrong  measure,  if  he  has  voted  against  them : 
the  responsibility  rests  upon  the  other  party.  But  he 
is  responsible  to  the  extent  of  his  vote  if  his  own 
party  elects  a  bad  man  or  passes  a  wrong  law.  Hence, 
he  is  not  only  bound  to  vote,  and  to  vote  intelligently, 
but  to  vote  with  a  single  eye  to  the  public  good,  with  a 
certain  party  or  against  it,  according  to  his  own  reason 
and  conscience. 

Few  men  are  qualified  by  their  abilities  or  character 
to  serve  the  State  in  high  political  positions.  Bvit  in 
the  civil  service,  as  a  whole,  there  is  a  proper  opening 
for  any  one  who  desires  to  work  for  the  town,  the  city, 
the  State,  or  the  Nation  rather  than  for  a  private  em- 
ployer. This  routine  business  of  the  government  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  political  issues  of  the  day,  and 
should  be  kept  apart  from  them  and  be  conducted  on 
strictly  business  methods  and  principles.  When  so 
conducted,  it  is  open  on  equal  conditions  to  every  citi- 
zen who  is  capable  and  worthy,  without  regard  to  his 
politics.  The  representative  offices  should  not  be 
soiight  by  the  private  citizen  ;  but  when  his  fellow-citi- 
zens call  upon  him  to  represent  them  in  the  town  or 


128  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

city  government,  in  the  legislature  or  in  Congress,  their 
summons  should  be  heeded,  unless  there  are  strong  rea- 
sons to  the  contrary.  The  talents  and  the  worth  of  all 
its  citizens  are  properly  subject  to  the  call  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  public  service  should  be  esteemed  by 
every  one  as  the  most  honorable  of  all  services. 

In  time  of  peace,  then,  the  patriot  thinks  upon  these 
political  duties,  —  his  obligations  to  inform  himself,  to 
spread  right  views,  to  vote,  and  to  hold  office  at  the 
will  of  the  people. 


NOTES. 


I.  The  teacher  will  find  without  difficulty  in  the  works  of  the 
leading  American  poets,  and  in  "  Speakers  "  containing  extracts 
from  our  most  noted  orators,  selections  suitable  for  reading  that 
are  calculated  to  inspire  an  intelligent  patriotism.  Such  poems 
are  numerous  in  James  Russell  Lowell's  works  in  particular  :  see 
"  The  Present  Crisis  "  ("  When  a  deed  is  done  for  freedom  ")  ;  the 
Biglow  Papers  ;  his  poems  of  the  war,  his  three  centennial  poems, 
and,  most  of  all,  the  "  Commemoration  Ode."  Longfellow  ("  Thou 
too  sail  on,  O  Ship  of  State  "),  Holmes  ("  The  Flower  of  Lib- 
erty "),  Whittier  ("  Democracy  "  and  numerous  war  poems),  and 
Bryant  have  written  many  noble  verses  of  patriotism.  Webster, 
Everett,  Winthrop  and  G.  W.  Curtis  are  names  of  orators  that 
will  occur  at  once  to  the  instructor  of  American  youth  ;  Lincoln's 
address  at  Gettysburg  is  foremost.  Relating  to  patriotism  in 
other  times  and  countries  are  such  poems  as  Byron's  lines  "  They 
fell  devoted  but  undying;"  "  Horatius,"  by  Macaulay,  Brown- 
ing's "  Herv^  Riel,"  and  "  A  Legend  of  Bregenz,"  by  Adelaide 
A.  Procter.  There  are  several  good  collections  of  ballads  of 
heroism. 

II.  "  Defence  against  the  attack  of  barbarians  from  within  is 
as  essential  in  our  democracies  as  defence  against  the  foe  from 
without."  (Guyau.)  The  demagogue,  well  set  forth  long  ago  in 
Aristophanes'  Knights  (see  J.  H.  Frere's  translation),  is  the  chief 
pest  of  democratic  countries.  "  The  people's  government "  of 
which  Webster  spoke,  "  made  for  the  people,  made  by  the  people, 
and  answerable  to  the  people,"  must  conform  to  the  laws  of  poli- 


OUR  COUNTRY.  129 

tics  and  ecoiiomics.  Every  citizen  should  understand  somewhat 
of  these  laws  and  of  the  history  of  his  country  in  which  they  have 
been  exhibited.  Happily  there  is  a  fast  increasing  number  of 
good  books  on  civil  government,  citizenship,  and  elementary  eco- 
nomics ;  there  is  now  no  sufficient  excuse  for  ignorance  in  these 
matters.  Among  the  best  of  these  volumes  are  John  Fiske's  Civil 
Government  in  the  United  States,  Charles  NordhofE's  Politics  for 
Young  Americans,  Professor  J.  Macy's  Our  Government,  ?i,iidi  C.  F. 
Dole's  A  merican  Citizen.  No  public-school  teacher  can  afford  to 
be  ignorant  of  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth.  The  Old  South 
Leaflets  contain  the  great  documents  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom, 
which  it  is  well  to  read  entire.  Mr.  Fiske's  book  gives  full 
bibliographical  data  for  all  who  would  inform  themselves  con- 
cerning our  free  institutions  and  their  history. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
CHARACTER. 

A  CHARACTER,  if  we  use  the  word  in  its  most  literal 
sense,  is  a  mark  or  sign  by  whicli  we  may  know  a  thing 
or  a  person.  Character  in  the  most  general  sense  is 
the  sum  of  all  the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  which 
make  one  human  being  different  from  another.  We 
will  speak  here  of  moral  qualities  only.  This  man  has 
a  bad  character,  we  say  :  he  will  drink,  steal,  lie,  or 
cheat  when  he  has  opportunity.  That  man,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  a  man  of  good  character  :  he  is  truthful,  tem- 
perate, honest,  and  industrious.  The  servant-girl  leav- 
ing one  situation  for  another  asks  her  mistress  to  "give 
her  a  character."  This  illustrates  another  common  use 
of  the  word  in  which  we  employ  it  as  by  itself  equiva- 
lent to  "  good  character  :  "  it  is  the  sense  in  which  we 
shall  speak  of  character  in  this  chapter ;  we  mean  by  it 
the  collection  and  blending  of  distinctively  good  traits 
or  qualities  in  a  person. 

A  man's  character,  of  course,  is  "what  he  is  in  him- 
self, not  what  he  owns  as  something  outside  of  him- 
self, or  something  he  has  personal  relations  with,  as 
with  his  family  or  his  partner  in  business.  Now  what 
he  is  in  himself  largely  determines  both  what  he  will 
own  and  what  relations  he  will  have  with  other  people. 
Very  important,  indeed,  is  it  to  a  man,  and  to  all  con- 
nected with  him,  what  he  owns,  —  money,  house,  land, 
ships,  warehouses  full  of  goods,  whatever  it  may  be. 
But  it  is  a  great  deal  more  important,  both  to  himself 
and  to  others  with  whom  he  is  in  contact,  what  he  is  in 
himself,   in  his  disposition   and  character.     Health 


CHARACTER.  131 

has  more  to  do  with  happiness  than  wealth,  and  few 
persons,  probably,  would  choose  a  fortune  if  compelled 
to  take  bad  health  with  it.  Health  of  mind,  soundness 
of  soul,  comes  from  living  morally,  i.  e.,  according  to 
the  laws  of  the  life  together,  just  as  physical  health  is 
dependent  on  keeping  the  laws  of  the  body.  If  we 
have  health  of  mind  and  heart,  this,  again,  is  a  still 
more  important  matter  than  what  we  own.  Our  wel- 
fare and  the  welfare  of  others  with  whom  we  are  living 
depend  far  more  on  our  being  kind,  truthful,  and  just, 
than  on  the  number  of  thousands  of  dollars  we  may  or 
may  not  own. 

Character  is,  therefore,  properly,  an  aim  in  itself, 
*.  e.,  a  thing  to  be  desired  for  its  own  sake.  This  we 
say  not  because  it  is  out  of  relation  to  actual  life  or  the 
persons  in  it,  or  can  be  separated  from  these,  for  all 
things  in  the  world  are  related  to  one  another,  but  be- 
cause it  is  so  evidently  of  the  highest  value  when  logi- 
cally considered  apart.  We  say  that  a  certain  man  has 
a  strong,  independent,  self-reliant  character.  He  has 
the  qualities  in  him  indicated  by  these  adjectives ;  he  is 
mentally  and  morally  strong,  self-contained,  and  able  to 
stand  alone  against  a  number  of  men  in  the  wrong. 
"When  any  occasion  comes  for  showing  strength  of  mind 
and  will,  he  will  be  prepared.  Plainly,  it  is  well  that 
he  should  have  been  accumulating  this  strength  before- 
hand, if  there  is,  indeed,  any  way  to  do  it.  So  with  the 
kindness,  the  power  to  tell  the  truth  or  to  do  justly, 
that  we  are  needing  every  day  we  live.  If  there  is  any 
way  to  store  up  in  ourselves  moral  strength  and 
beauty,  which  are  demanded  by  the  life  in  common, 
surely  the  knowledge  of  it  is  most  desirable. 

Two  things  we  must  here  bear  in  mind,  espeeiall3^  I. 
The  good  character  that  we  show  in  our  life-actions  is 
not  like  a  purse  having  so  many  dollars  in  it,  out  of 
which  we  take  one  or  ten,  as  the  case  may  be,  and 
which  we  must  be  careful  to  fill  up  again  before  the 


132  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

money  is  all  drawn  out.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  like  a 
muscle  of  the  arm  Avhich  grows  stronger  by  exercise, 
like  a  faculty  of  the  mind,  such  as  memory,  which 
improves  by  practice.  Our  ability  to  tell  the  truth,  to 
do  honest  actions,  or  to  conduct  ourselves  graciously 
toward  others,  is  a  power  that  grows  with  use,  and  the 
good  act  becomes  easier  to  us  each  time  that  we  do  it. 

II.  Consequently  we  are  wise  when  we  aim  directly 
at  the  good  quality  or  moral  faculty  in  itself.  In  other 
words,  it  is  always  well  to  do  right  because  it  is 
right.  It  is  usually  a  difficult  thing  to  trace  out  in  our 
minds  the  probable  consequences  of  this  or  that  act 
which  we  are  purposing  to  do,  to  imagine  how  it  will 
affect  this  or  that  particular  person,  and  a  whole  multi- 
tude of  others.  But  if  we  know  that  it  is  right,  so  far 
as  we  can  see,  and  that  to  do  it  will  strengthen  in  our- 
selves the  power  to  do  right  again,  then  we  have  con- 
sidered, in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  all  that  we  need 
to  consider.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  mankind  has 
been  living  many  thousands  of  years  on  this  earth,  and 
that  all  this  time  men  have  been  learning  from  experi- 
ence, hard  or  pleasant,  sweet  or  bitter,  how  to  live  the 
life  together.  The  teachings  of  this  great,  this  vast 
experience  have  been  solidified  into  the  common  moral 
rules  concerning  truthfulness  and  honesty  and  peaceful- 
ness  and  industry  and  all  the  other  virtues  and  their 
opposite  vices.  These  rules  are  repeated,  again  and 
again,  in  books,  in  proverbs  about  conduct,  and  in  the 
daily  talk  of  men  giving  advice  to  one  another,  or  prais- 
ing or  condemning  other  men's  actions.  We  ought  to 
profit  by  this  experience  of  multitudes  of  men  who  have 
been  before  us,  so  as  to  avoid  their  errors  and  defeats, 
and  imitate  only  their  wisdom  and  their  victories. 
Obedience  to  a  few  plain  rules  is  all  that  we  need 
most  of  the  time.  But  the  few  strong  instincts,  of 
which  the  poet  also  speaks,  are  not  strong  enough  in 
us   to   bring   about   complete   and   constant  obedience. 


CHARACTER.  133 

We  wish  to  have  our  own  way  and  do  as  we  please, 
without  regard  to  the  effect  on  other  people,  who  have 
just  as  much  right  as  we  —  i.  e.,  none  at  all  —  to  have 
their  own  way  and  do  as  they  please.  80  we  act  as  if 
we  lived  in  a  world  where  the  most  important  of  all 
affairs,  the  dealings  of  men  with  each  other,  were  not 
subject  to  steadfast  laws  which  take  no  account  of  your 
conceit  or  my  selhshness,  but  forever  determine  that  if 
men  are  to  live  in  society  and  become  civilized,  they 
must  do  thus  and  so,  as  the  severe  and  beautiful  moral 
laws  declare.  Otherwise  society  cannot  prosper :  it 
cannot  even  be  at  all,  and  every  individual  must  suf- 
fer accordingly. 

When  we  consider  how  perpetually  we  are  acting  and 
reacting  on  each  other,  and  how  our  human  life  is 
three  fourths  conduct,  if  not  more,  we  see  how  vastly 
important  it  is  to  make  morality  easy  and  natural  to 
ourselves  so  that  we  shall,  indeed,  seem  to  be  acting 
always  from  those  "  few  strong  instincts."  How  shall 
we  do  this  ?  In  just  the  same  way,  fundamentally, 
that  any  one  must  follow  who  would  acquire  any  other 
art.  If  a  boy  would  learn  to  be  a  carpenter  he  must 
handle  the  saw  and  the  chisel  often  :  if  a  girl  would  be- 
come skilful  on  the  piano-forte,  she  must  first  prac- 
tise scales  and  other  exercises  by  the  hour.  Faculty 
conies  from  practice  :  skill  is  the  result  of  industry 
in  doing  the  thing.  We  see  about  us  in  the  world  men 
and  women  who  are  brave  and  generous  and  capable 
and  true  and  kind  and  noble  and  sweet  and  gracious, 
whose  words  and  acts  are  a  great  power  of  good  to  all 
who  meet  them  or  know  of  them.  These  persons  are 
masters  in  the  moral  art.  What  they  have  done  wo, 
perchance,  can  do ;  and  we  can  begin  to  do  it,  in  a  small 
way  and  a  slight  degree.  We  gain  strength  and  skill 
with  practice,  like  the  blacksmith  at  the  anvil  or  the 
player  at  the  piano-forte  ;  thus  we  find,  in  time,  the 
moral  line  of  least  resistance,  and  do  the  right  easily, 


134  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

naturally,  and  spontaneously.  Until  we  do  it  so,  it  is 
not  done  beautifully,  and  no  art  is  perfect  until  it 
comes  to  beauty  as  well  as  to  propriety.  The  higher 
powers  and  graces  of  conduct  are  unattainable  until  the 
ordinary  virtues  have  become  so  natural  to  us  through 
habit  that  we  do  right  without  thought,  as  without  diffi- 
culty. "  Habit  a  second  nature,"  said  the  great  Duke 
of  Wellington  ;  —  "it  is  ten  times  nature."  ^ 

We  can  remake  ourselves  to  an  indefinite  extent,  in- 
side the  limits  of  human  nature,  and  the  method  is  the 
formation  of  other  habits.  A  certain  good  action  may 
be  very  hard  for  us  to  do  at  first,  but  if  we  continue 
to  do  it,  the  difficulty  diminishes  and  at  last  disappears : 
the  action  has  become  natural  to  us.  But  the  "  nature  " 
we  have  in  mind,  in  so  speaking,  is  not  the  undisci- 
plined nature  we  had  two  or  ten  years  ago  as  it  was, 
but  that  nature  trained  and  cultivated  by  the  exercise 
of  will,  aiming  at  a  certain  moral  strength.  We  have 
left  a  lower  character  beneath  us,  and  have  climbed  up 
to  a  higher. 

We  should  then,  each  one  of  us,  take  ourselves  in 
hand  and  realize  that  moral  goodness  is,  least  of  all 
things,  to  be  (jiven  by  one  person  to  another,  that,  be- 
yond all  other  desirable  possessions,  it  is  an  art  to  be 
acquired  by  personal  practice  and  individual  experience  ; 
that  more  than  in  any  other  direction,  we  can  learn  here 
from  the  errors  and  the  excellences  of  others  v/hat  to 
avoid  and  what  to  pursue  ;  that  here  supremely,  to  be 
is  better  than  to  seem,  and  that  if  we  aim  to  be  like 
the  good  and  the  true,  to  enjoy  their  repute  and  wield 
their  power,  we  must  patiently  acquire  their  skill  in 
goodness,  their  faculty  of  righteousness. 

We  should  encourage  ourselves  with  remembering 
the  immense  aid  we  can  derive  from  the  record  of  the 
lives  of  the  men  and  women  who  have  made  morality 
the  finest  of  all  human  arts,  not  by  their  sublime  in- 

^  This  saying  will  bear  a  second  quotation. 


CHARACTER.  135 

tellects  or  their  illustrious  deeds,  but  by  heroic  per- 
severance in  self-control  and  self-devotion.  Greater 
than  this  help  even  is  the  aid  that  we  can  all  impart 
to  one  another  by  living  sympathy  and  helpfulness. 
Sweetness  and  light,  —  we  can  give  a  small  portion 
of  these  to  one  another  every  day,  making  the  burdens 
easier  and  the  path  plainer.  Cogitavi  vias  meas :  "  I 
have  considered  my  ways."  When  we  consider  them 
well  we  ask  for  guidance  from  the  noble  and  the  true 
of  the  past  and  the  present.  By  dwelling  on  their  ex- 
ample and  on  the  ideal  of  the  perfect  man  who  imites 
all  virtues  and  all  excellences,  we  are  inspired  to  be- 
come something  better  than  we  are ;  by  patient  continu- 
ance in  well-doing  we  are  slowly  transformed  into  the 
image  of  our  hope  ! 


NOTES. 


The  teacher  of  morals  will  do  well  to  conclude  every  lesson 
by  striking  the  note  of  character,  distinguished  from  the  note  of 
external  consequences  as  a  test  of  conduct,  and  from  the  note  of 
circumstances  as  a  rule  of  action.  "The  character  itself  should 
be  to  the  individual  a  paramount  end,  simply  because  the  exis- 
tence of  this  ideal  nobleness  of  character,  or  of  a  near  approach 
to  it,  in  any  abundance,  would  go  further  than  all  things  else 
toward  making  human  life  happy,  both  in  the  comparatively 
humble  sense  of  pleasure  and  freedom  from  pain,  and  in  the 
higher  meaniug  of  rendering  life  not  what  it  now  is  almost  uni- 
versally, puerile  and  insignificant,  but  such  as  human  beings 
with  highly  developed  faculties  can  care  to  have."  —  J.  S.  Mill, 
Logic,  Bk.  vi.  Ch.  12. 

"  It  always  remains  true  that  if  we  had  been  greater,  circum- 
stances would  have  been  less  strong  against  us."  —  George 
Eliot  in  Middlemnrch. 

"  A  healthy  soul  stands  united  with  the  Just  and  the  True,  as 
the  magnet  arranges  itself  with  the  pole,  so  that  he  stands  to  all 
beholders  like  a  transparent  object  betwixt  them  and  the  sun, 
and  whoso  journeys  towards  the  sun  journeys  towards  that  per- 


136  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

son.  He  is  thus  the  medium  of  the  highest  influence  to  all  who 
are  not  on  the  same  level.  Thus  men  of  character  are  the 
conscience  of  the  society  to  which  they  belong."  (Emerson, 
"  Character.")  The  Chinese  have  a  proverb  :  "  He  who  finds 
pleasure  in  vice  and  pain  in  virtue  is  still  a  novice  in  both." 

"  Even  in  a  palace  life  may  be  led  icell ! 
So  spoke  the  imperial  sage,  purest  of  men, 
Marcus  Aurelius.  .  .  . 
The  aids  to  noble  life  are  all  within." 

M.  Abnold. 

The  "  literature  of  power,"  as  distinguished  from  the  "  litera- 
ture of  knowledge,"  tends  to  shape  character  in  manifold  ways. 
A  large  part  of  the  great  literature  of  the  world,  judged  by  lit- 
erary standards,  has  immense  influence,  directly  and  indirectly, 
in  forming  the  conduct  of  men.  Lectures,  sermons,  and  vol- 
umes on  character  are  innumerable  :  see,  simply  as  specimens, 
four  books,  Emerson's  Conduct  of  Life,  Character  Building,  by 
E.  P.  Jackson,  Character,  by  S.  Smiles,  and  Corner-Stones  of 
Character,  by  Kate  Gannett  Wells. 

The  importance  to  refinement  of  character  of  an  early  ac- 
quaintance with  the  best  literature  is  well  emphasized  by  Mary 
E.  Burt  in  her  Literary  Landmarks  and  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly 
for  May,  1891  ;  see  also  C.  D.  Warner's  article  in  the  same 
periodical  for  June,  1890,  and  "  Literature  in  School,"  by  H.  E. 
Scudder,  in  the  Riverside  Literature  Series. 

"  He  spoke,  and  words  more  soft  than  rain 
Brought  the  Age  of  Gold  again  : 
His  action  won  such  reverence  sweet, 
As  hid  all  measure  of  the  feat." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
MORAL   PROGRESS. 

The  first  place  where  we  leani  about  the  moral  laws 
is,  of  course,  the  home  into  which  we  are  born.  The 
family  is  the  earliest  and  the  latest  school  of  morals. 
If  we  observe  how  children  advance  naturally  in  know- 
ledge and  practice  of  the  right,  we  shall  find  the  broad 
lines  on  which  the  moral  progress  of  the  world  at  large 
has  taken  place.  For,  as  the  philosophy  of  evolution 
teaches  us,  tlte  development  of  entire  liunutnitij  is  figured 
and  summarized  in  the  groictli  of  each  child. 

When  the  child  has  learned  to  obey  father  and 
mother,  and  when  it  will  speak  the  truth  to  them  con- 
stantly, it  may  still  conduct  itself  unmorally  or  immor- 
ally toward  persons  outside  the  home  bounds.  Chil- 
dren not  rarely  tell  an  untruth  to  a  mere  acquaintance 
or  a  stranger  without  any  sense  of  wrong-doing,  while 
they  would  think  it  very  wrong  to  tell  a  lie  to  father  or 
mother  or  brother  or  sister.  This  will  not  be  so  strange 
to  us  when  we  reflect  that  they  have  not  yet  learned  to 
know  any  larger  world  than  the  home,  that  their  ideas 
of  right  and  wrong  naturally  take  a  very  concrete  form 
and  are  concerned  with  a  very  few  persons.  Eight  is, 
for  them,  to  "  mind  "  father's  and  mother's  commands, 
to  do  as  they  are  told  to  do,  and  to  tell  their  parents 
the  truth.  The  general  and  abstract  idea  of  obedience 
to  the  Moral  Law  applying  to  all  mankind  comes 
later  and  gradually  with  experience  and  enlarging  power 
of  thought. 

All  the  mistakes  and  imperfections  of  the  morals  of 
children  can  be  paralleled  from  the  practice  of  savages 


138  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

or  barbarians  now  living,  or  from  the  records  of  early, 
historic  mankind.  The  savage  obeys  his  chief  and 
complies  very  carefully  with  the  customs  of  his  tribe  ; 
he  tells  the  truth,  in  a  rough  way,  to  his  fellow-tribes- 
men, and  in  general,  he  deals  with  them  according  to 
his  rude  notions  of  justice.  But  he  has  no  notion  that 
men  of  another  tribe  have  any  rights  that  he  is  bound 
to  respect.  He  can  deceive,  cheat,  maltreat,  or  kill 
them,  in  peace  or  in  war,  and  his  conscience  will  never 
trouble  him.  He  has  a  tribal  conscience,  just  as  the 
child  has  a  home  conscience.  So  in  later  times,  and 
down  even  to  our  own  day,  persons  of  one  nation  or 
race  hate  those  of  another  or  of  all  others,  and  con- 
sider themselves  practically  free  from  this  or  that 
obligation  of  truth  or  justice  toward  them.  Such  are 
the  actual  relations,  too  often,  of  the  white  man  and  the 
man  with  a  black  or  a  yellow  skin ;  of  the  Englishman 
and  the  Irishman ;  of  the  French  and  the  Germans. 
But  as  respects  the  extent  to  which  the  moral  law 
applies,  it  is  very  plain  that  we  do  not  reach  a  logical 
limit  until  we  have  included  the  whole  human  race. 
Morality  is  conterminous,  i  e.,  has  the  same  bounds 
and  limits,  with  humanity,  with  all  mankind.  There 
are  special  duties  and  great  differences  in  the  degree 
of  obligation  according  as  we  live  in  closer  or  looser 
relations  with  other  human  beings,  from  the  nearness, 
constancy,  and  immediateness  of  home  life  up  to  our 
most  general  relations  to  the  great  mass  of  men  whom 
we  never  even  see.  But  whosoever  the  man  may  be, 
American,  Negro,  or  Chinaman,  with  whom  we  have 
dealings  at  any  time  or  in  any  place,  the  universal 
moral  law  dictates  that  he  shall  be  treated  justly.  Nihil 
hummii  aUenuni  a  me  2Juto,  says  a  character  in  a  play  of 
the  Roman  writer,  Terence,  "  I  esteem  nothing  human 
foreign  to  me."  So  morality  might  speak  if  we  were 
to  personify  it.  Every  relation  of  man  to  men,  without 
regard  to  country  or  complexion  or  race  or  age,  is  sub- 


MORAL  PIWGRESS.  139 

ject  to  moral  judgment.  Ethics  is  a  science  of  a  part 
of  universal  human  nature :  and  morality  is  an  art  to  be 
practised  by  us  toward  every  other  human  being. 

Progress  in  general  morals  is  going  on,  and  must 
go  on,  until  all  mankind  recognize  that  they  live  under 
one  great  moral  law.  This  progress  is  marked  by  the 
discussion  and  agitation  of  the  rights  of  this  or  that 
class  of  human  beings  that  is  constantly  going  on. 
What  are  the  rights  of  women  ?  What  are  the  rights 
of  children  ?  What  are  the  rights  of  the  Negro  or  of 
the  Chinaman  in  this  country  ?  This  word  "  rights  " 
very  often  means  "  political  privileges,"  such  as  the 
right  to  vote,  with  which  we  are  not  concerned  in  this 
elementary  book.  But  the  moral  rights  of  women  and 
children,  of  negroes  and  Chinamen,  for  example,  are 
much  more  important  to  them  than  these  political  privi- 
leges. Moral  progress  consists,  in  one  aspect,  in  the 
increasing  recognition,  theoretically  and  practically,  of 
the  fact  that  there  is  the  same  measure  of  right  and 
duty  for  every  human  being. 

Each  person  has  a  right  to  himself,  to  his  own  per- 
son :  so  slavery,  the  ownership  of  one  man  by  another, 
as  if  he  were  a  piece  of  property  like  a  dog  or  a  horse, 
is  wrong,  whether  the  slave  be  white  or  black  in  color. 
Women  have  peculiar  duties  as  wives  and  mothers ;  but 
as  human  beings  in  a  civilized  state  they  have  the  same 
general  rights  as  men  to  education  and  property  and 
labor.  Children  are  morally  bound  to  obey  their  par- 
ents and  other  superiors  in  authority ;  but  parents  are 
bound,  as  well,  to  respect  the  nature  of  the  child  and  to 
give  him  an  education  to  fit  him  for  mature  life.  So 
there  are  the  rights  of  workmen  and  servants,  as  well 
as  their  dvities,  which  are  to  be  borne  in  mind  by  mas- 
ters and  employers.  As  a  rule,  it  is  a  bad  sign  for  any 
person,  man  or  woman,  to  be  talking  very  much 
about  rights  ;  commonly,  he  would  have  fully  enough 
to  do  in  attending  to  his  duties.     We  can  never  be 


140  TUE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

too  well  aware  that  each  right  has  a  corresponding  duty 
in  our  relations  with  every  other  human  being.  So 
much,  then,  for  the  extension  of  the  ideas  of  right  and 
duty  to  all  mankind. 

We  can  make  progress,  as  well,  in  the  thoroughness 
with  which  we  conceive  and  apply  the  idea  of  our  duty 
to  the  persons  with  whom  we  have  the  most  to  do.  In 
other  words,  our  morality  may  be  intensive  as  well  as 
extensive.  As  we  come  to  make  no  exceptions  in  the 
matter  of  persons,  and  thus  include  all  other  human 
beings  in  the  range  of  duty  ;  so  we  also  make  progress 
morally  by  deepening  and  intensifying  the  moral  life, 
—  thought,  feeling,  word,  and  act.  Some  persons  seem 
to  think  or  to  care  very  little  about  right  and  duty ; 
they  do  not  pay  attention  to  their  own  ways  and  habits 
to  see  if  these  may  be  improved  morally,  so  as  to  be 
juster  or  kinder.  Their  life  may  not  be  vicious ;  and, 
if  they  are  naturally  amiable  and  cheerful,  it  may  have 
much  in  it  to  commend.  But  thoughtlessness  about  one's 
own  conduct  can  never  properly  be  praised.  The  art  of 
human  life  together  is  the  greatest  of  all  arts,  and  it 
can  never  be  learned  too  thoroughly.  We  can  make 
the  most  and  the  surest  progress  in  it  by  "  giving  heed  " 
to  it. 

We  are  not  to  become  morbid  and  think  overmuch 
about  ourselves  :  we  should  look  out,  not  in  ;  up,  not 
down;  forward,  not  back;  and  be  ready  to  lend  a 
hand.  But  observation  of  the  moral  life  in  others, 
who  excel  in  truth  and  goodness,  should  be  frequent, 
that  we  may  learn  of  them  to  be  and  to  do  better.  We 
should  not  be  satisfied  with  a  low  standard  of  right, 
content  to  do  as  most  others  are  doing  in  our  neighbor- 
hood, or  town,  in  our  political  party,  or  our  section  of 
the  country.  To  do  a  thing  because  others  do  it  is  not 
a  sufficient  reason.  We  are  bound  to  consider  if  it  is 
right,  according  to  our  highest  and  most  correct  ideas 
of  right ;  if  it  is  not  right  we  are  bound,  in  reason  and 


MORAL  PROGRESS.  141 

honor,  not  to  do  it.  No  moral  progress  would  be  possi- 
ble if  some  one  did  not  set  the  example  of  following 
his  conscience  rather  than  complying  with  a  bad  habit 
which  many  persons  are  practising.  The  strictly  con- 
scientious and  honorable  people  are  usually  in  the 
minority  ;  but  we  should  look  to  them,  not  to  the  ma- 
jority, to  discover  the  whole  extent  of  our  duty.  If 
the  truly  honorable  of  the  earth  are  wise,  their  practice 
in  a  particular  held  must  in  time  widen  and  widen, 
until  it  has  become  general. 

A  very  important  part  of  our  duty  is  to  enlighten  our 
minds  by  thought  and  discussion  and  reasoning  on 
moral  matters.  We  easily  get  into  the  rut  of  personal 
routine  and  class  prejudice,  and  we  often  need  to 
have  a  free  play  of  fresh  thought  and  feeling  over  the 
surface  of  our  living.  It  is  a  good  practice,  in  this  re- 
spect, occasionally  to  go  away  for  a  time,  from  our  work 
and  our  homes,  even  from  those  who  are  dearest  to  us. 
Returning,  we  find  ourselves  stronger  and  more  inter- 
ested in  our  work,  and  more  appreciative  of  the  beauty 
and  love  at  home.  It  is  good,  too,  every  day  to  read 
and  consider  some  inspiring  word  about  conduct  by  one 
of  the  many  great  teachers  who  can  help  us  to  live 
in  the  spirit.  Like  Goethe,  we  can  refresh  ourselves 
and  lift  up  the  whole  level  of  the  day  with  five  minutes 
spent  over  a  poem  or  a  picture.  Thus  we  learn,  little 
by  little,  what  magnanimity  is,  and,  however  slowly, 
come  to  live  nobly.  Upon  our  actual  practice  a  stream 
of  earnest  thought  should  play  ;  and  strength  to  do  the 
highest  right  will  come  by  exercise  of  the  power  we 
have,  as  we  understand  better  and  feel  more  deeply  the 
fiill  meaning  of  the  whole  moral  law.  So  feeling,  we 
rejoice  to  repeat  the  magnificent  eulogy  of  the  "  Stern 
Lawgiver  "  in  the  "  Ode  to  Duty  "  :  — 

"  Flowers  laugh  before  thee  on  their  beds, 
And  fragTance  in  thy  footing  treads  ; 
Thou  dost  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong, 
And  the  most  ancient  heavens  through  thee  are  fresh  and  strong." 


142  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

With  Wordsworth  we  join  in  the  petition  :  — 

"  To  humbler  functions,  awful  Power! 
I  call  thee  :   I  myself  commend 
Unto  thy  guidance  from  this  hour ; 
Oh,  let  my  weakness  have  an  end  ! 
Give  unto  me,  made  lowly  wise, 
The  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  ; 
The  confidence  of  reason  give  ; 
And  in  the  light  of  truth  thy  Bondman  let  me  live !  " 


NOTES. 


The  evolution  of  morals  has  been  the  theme  of  numerous  writ- 
ers of  the  present  day,  who  have  industriously  collected  a  great 
amount  of  information  concerning  the  conduct  of  mankind  in 
all  times  and  countries.  But  the  difficulties  to  ethical  theory 
presented  by  the  wide  variations  of  conduct  among  men  have  long 
been  a  familiar  topic  with  writers  on  ethics.  See  for  an  exam- 
ple of  a  recent  treatment  of  the  subject,  in  Paul  Janet's  Theory 
of  Morals,  the  chapter  on  the  universality  of  moral  principles 
and  moi-al  progress. 

"  Tlie  world  advances,  and  in  time  outgrows 
The  laws  that  iu  our  fathers'  days  were  best ; 
And  doubtless  after  us,  some  purer  scheme 
Will  be  shaped  out  by  wiser  men  than  we, 
Made  wiser  by  the  steady  growth  of  truth." 

Lowell. 

Civilization  grows  largely  in  proportion  to  the  willingness  and 
ability  of  men  to  cooperate  ;  and  cooperation  demands  great 
moral  qualities  which  we  cannot  begin  too  soon  to  cultivate. 

"  All  are  needed  by  each  one  : 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone." 

"  The  enthusiasm  of  humanity  "  is  the  name  happily  given  by 
Professor  J.  R.  Seeley  to  the  highest  type  of  desire  to  work  for 
others.  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  has  worked  out  tlie  conception  of 
society  as  a  moral  organism  in  his  Science  of  Ethics  •  the  idea 
of  "  social  tissue  "  is  fully  developed  by  him.  He  concludes, 
however,  "  But  it  is  happy  for  the  world  that  moral  progress 
has  not  to  wait  till  an  unimpeachable  system  of  ethics  has  been 


MORAL  PROGRESS.  143 

elaborated."  Progressive  Morality,  by  T.  Fowler,  and  Moral 
Order  and  Progress,  by  S.  Alexauder,  coiitaiu  able  discussions  of 
the  advance  of  morality. 

The  moral  progress  of  most  importance  to  each  one  of  us  is 
indicated  in  Wordsworth's  "  Happy  Warrior  "  :  — 

"  Who  not  content  that  former  worth  stand  fast, 
Looks  forward,  persevering  to  the  last. 
From  well  to  better,  daily  self-surpast ;  " 

in  Dr.  Holmes's  "  Chambered  Nautilus,"  and  in  D.  A.  Wasson's 
"  Ideals." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

LIFE  ACCORDING  TO  THE  GOLDEN  RULE. 

Every  art  has  its  ideal,  the  standard  of  perfection, 
toward  which  tlie  efforts  of  all  who  practise  it  are  more 
or  less  consciously  directed.  In  human  conduct,  the 
greatest  of  all  arts  for  the  mass  of  mankind,  this  ideal 
would  be,  theoretically,  the  realization  in  one  life  of  all 
the  virtues  that  we  can  name.  But  they  are  so  many, 
and  human  beings  have  such  different  natural  disposi- 
tions, temperaments,  and  talents  that,  practically,  we 
do  not  expect  any  person,  even  the  best,  to  be  "  a  model 
of  all  the  virtues  :  "  such  a  phrase  is  ironical  on  the 
face  of  it.  But  there  is  one  rule  for  conduct,  observ- 
ance of  which  is  universally  allowed  to  be  a  mark  of 
every  thoroughly  good  person.  It  is  the  precept  known 
to  us  all  as  the  Golden  Eule  :  Do  unto  others  as  you 
woiold  that  they  should  do  unto  you.  This  is  so 
extremely  important  a  rule  of  conduct  to  bear  in  mind 
constantly  and  to  obey  every  hour,  that  we  shall  do 
well  to  consider  it  carefully. 

The  beginning  of  morality,  we  have  seen,  is  obedi- 
ence to  the  law  of  life  together,  and  this  means  self- 
control,  the  willingness  to  do  our  part,  —  no  less,  — 
and  to  take  our  share,  —  no  more.  But  the  greatest 
foe  of  the  good  life  is  the  intense  and  irrational  impulse 
almost  every  person  has  to  assert  himself,  even  to  the 
loss  or  injury  of  others,  to  take  more  than  his  due  share 
of  the  good  things,  and  less  than  his  share  of  the  Avork, 
the  hardships  and  the  sufferings  of  human  life.  The 
extreme  point  of  this  selfishness  is  murder  and  war.  in 
which  one  takes  away  from  others  even  life  itself,  the 


LIFi:  ACCORDING   TO   TUB  GOLDEN  RULE.    145 

prime  condition  of  every  human  good.  If  we  briefly 
consider  tlie  history  of  the  world  down  to  modern 
times,  we  sliall  agree  with  Mr.  John  Fiske :  "  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  in  respect  to  justice  and  kind- 
ness the  advance  of  civilized  man  has  been  less  marked 
than  in  respect  of  quick-wittedness.  Now,  this  is  be- 
cause the  advancement  of  civilized  man  has  been  largely 
effected  through  lighting."  The  world  is  becoming 
more  peaceful,  we  trust,  and  will  advance  hereafter 
more  through  peace  than  through  war.  But  to  check 
the  extreme  selfishness  and  passion  which  show  them- 
selves in  violence  between  persons,  and  in  war  between 
nations,  to  make  peace  —  the  condition  of  most  of  the 
virtues  —  between  individuals  and  between  countries 
possible  and  actual,  some  universal  maxim  of  con- 
duct would  seem  to  be  desirable.  This,  obviously, 
should  refer  not  so  much  to  any  special  action,  as  kill- 
ing or  stealing,  as  to  the  general  disposition  out  of 
which  all  our  acts  proceed.  Such  a  rule,  applying  to 
so  widespread  an  evil  as  selfishness,  should  inculcate 
a  spirit  fatal  to  greed  and  violence  and  cunning.  To 
obtain  general  acceptance  it  should  be  plain,  direct,  and 
searching.  It  should  spring  out  of  the  actual  experi- 
ence of  mankind  in  all  times  and  countries,  and  justify 
itself  at  once  to  rational  beings. 

Such  a  rule  has  been  hit  upon,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all 
over  the  world,  we  may  say,  in  every  country  where 
men  have  risen  from  the  condition  of  savages.  It  is  a 
simple  deduction  from  the  elementary  notion  of  justice. 
If  you  are  acting  in  a  certain  manner  toward  another 
person,  is  it  right  that  he  should  treat  you  in  the  same 
spirit  ?  If  you  say  that  it  would  not  be  right,  wJuj 
would  it  not  be  right  ?  Is  your  own  conduct  toward 
him  right  ?.  Of  course,  we  soon  realize,  Avhen  we  have 
begun  to  reason  about  the  matter,  how  difficult,  if  not 
actually  impossible,  it  is  for  us  "to  see  ourselves  as 
others  see  us,"  and  to  judge  our  own  acts,  words,  looks. 


146  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY  CONDUCT. 

feelings,  and  thoughts,  just  as  others  do.  In  fact,  a 
perfectly  just  judgment  would  have  to  take  into  account 
our  thoughts  and  feelings  as  we  ourselves  alone  can 
know  them,  as  well  as  the  expressions  and  words  others 
see  and  hear. 

Eecognizmg  this  common  difficulty  of  passing  right 
judgment  on  others  and  on  ourselves,  the  immeasurable 
experience  of  mankind  has  yet  shown  that  the  spirit 
in  which  we  act  is  the  main  matter.  If  we  have 
acted,  if  others  have  acted,  in  a  spirit  of  sympathy ;  if 
in  the  conduct  of  each  there  is  an  effort  to  imagine  how 
his  action  would  appear  to  himself  if  he  were  the  other 
person,  and  to  shape  his  conduct  so  as  to  approve  it  to 
himself,  standing  in  the  other  man's  place,  —  then  we 
have  gotten  over  the  main  evil  in  our  conduct,  we  have 
risen,  to  a  degree,  out  of  self,  and  judged  and  acted  im- 
partially. Thus  doing,  we  are  at  least  acting  according 
to  a  rule,  not  according  to  a  blind  and  foolish  determi- 
nation to  have  our  own  way  and  get  all  we  can,  every- 
where and  always.  The  result,  shortly  stated,  of  mil- 
lions upon  millions  of  special  experiences  of  men  in 
social  life  is  that  the  Golden  Rule  is  the  best  attainable 
working  rule  of  life :  Put  yourself  in  his  place ;  do 
as  you  woiild.  be  done  by.  This  means  :  Try  to  see 
things  as  they  are,  not  simply  as  they  first  appear  to 
yourself,  for  you  may  be,  you  m^^st  be,  hindered  from 
seeing  them  completely  by  your  personal  interests  or 
limitations.  It  means  :  Try,  as  far  as  you  may,  to  see 
your  own  conduct  from  the  outside,  as  well  as  from  the 
inside. 

This  is  the  method  of  science.  In  every  other  di- 
rection we  endeavor  to  see  as  all  see,  to  know  as  all 
know,  to  find  what  is  fact  to  everybody  and  what  must 
be  law  for  all,  ourselves  as  well  as  others.  Our  con- 
duct will  be  rational,  and  so  right,  when  we  conform  it 
to  the  universal  laws  of  morals.  Practically,  the  easi- 
est way  for  us  so  to  conform  it  is  to  work  according  to 


LIFE  ACCORDING    TO   THE  GOLDEN  RULE.    147 

this  Golden  Rixle.  The  act  that  you  are  about  to  do, 
would  you  like  to  have  it  done  to  yourself  ?  The  words 
that  are  on  your  tongue  to  speak,  would  you  like  to 
have  them  spoken  to  yourself  ?  These  are  very  search- 
ing questions  !  Beyond  a  doubt,  if  we  paused  to  put 
them  to  ourselves  and  acted  in  accordance  with  the 
negative  answer  which  we  should  often  give,  the  world 
would  be  very  much  happier,  very  much  better  than  it 
is.  For  it  is  one  of  the  simplest  facts  of  human  nature 
that  men  naturally  do  as  they  are  done  by :  wrong 
breeds  wrong,  and  injuries  are  returned  with  interest, 
and  so  multiplied  indefinitely.  But  if  we  are  treated 
justly  by  others,  we  at  least  incline  to  treat  them  justly. 
Kindness,  truthfulness,  all  the  virtues,  propagate  them- 
selves in  this  way. 

.  That  men,  then,  should  do  rightly  to  others  and  be 
treated  rightly  in  return,  it  is  chiefly  necessary  that 
they  should  bear  these  others  in  mind  and  act  with 
some  view  to  their  welfare.  The  most  direct  way  to 
this  end  is  to  imagine  ourselves  in  others'  places,  and 
then  act  accordingly.  So  all  the  greatest  teachers  of 
morals  the  world  has  seen  are  unanimous  in  laying 
down  the  Golden  Eule  in  one  form  or  another.  Let 
us  hear  what  some  of  them  say.  The  Buddhist  Dham- 
mapada,  or  Path  to  Virtue,  declares  :  In  all  this  "world 
evil  is  overcome  only  ■with  good.  The  Jewish  Book 
of  Leviticus  says  :  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself.  Hillel,  the  famous  rabbi,  commanded :  "  What 
thou  hatest  thyself,  that  do  not  thou  to  another :  that  is 
the  whole  of  the  law."  Confucius,  the  great  moral 
teacher  of  China,  thus  expanded  the  rule  :  "  That  which 
you  hate  in  superiors,  do  not  practise  in  your  conduct 
toward  inferiors  ;  that  which  you  dislike  in  inferiors, 
do  not  practise  toward  superiors ;  that  which  you  hate 
in  those  before  you,  do  not  exhibit  to  those  behind  you ; 
that  which  you  hate  in  those  behind  you,  do  not  mani- 
fest to  those  before  you  ;  that  which  you  hate  in  those 


148  THE  LAWS  OF  DAILY   CONDUCT. 

on  your  right  do  not  manifest  to  those  on  your  left ; 
that  which  you  hate  in  those  on  your  left,  do  not  mani- 
fest to  those  on  your  right.  This  is  the  doctrine  of 
measuring  others  by  ourselves."  Briefer  is  the  an- 
swer which  Confucius  gave  to  one  who  asked  him,  "  Is 
there  one  word  which  may  serve  as  a  rule  of  practice 
for  all  one's  life  ?  "  "  Is  not  Reciprocity  such  a  word  ?  " 
he  replied ;  "  what  you  wish  done  to  yourself,  do  to 
others."  To  the  same  effect  spoke  Isocrates  the  Greek 
orator,  and  Thales  the  Greek  philosopher.  So,  in  the 
most  emphatic  way,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  commanded : 
All  things,  therefore,  whatsoever  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  unto  you,  even  so  do  ye  also  unto 
them. 

The  Golden  Kule  must  not  be  understood  as  taking 
the  place  of  the  whole  moral  code.  It  inculcates  the 
spirit  in  which  Ave  should  act.  Justice  and  truth  and 
kindness,  —  these  are  the  virtues  we  wish  men  to  show 
to  ourselves :  they  are  the  very  virtues,  then,  that  we 
should  exhibit  to  them.  The  Golden  Rule  cannot  in- 
form us  precisely  what  is  just,  or  true,  or  kind,  in  a 
particular  instance ;  but  it  does  remind  us  to  act  accord- 
ing to  the  knowledge  we  have  of  the  just  and  the  ti'ue, 
in  a  kindly  manner.  Living  in  obedience  to  this  Rule, 
we  should  cultivate  in  ourselves  the  intellectual  power 
of  imagination  and  the  capacity  of  sympathy.  ''  The 
better  we  can  imagine  objects  and  relations  not  present 
to  sense,  the  more  readily  we  can  sympathize  with  other 
people.  Half  the  cruelty  in  the  world  is  the  direct  re- 
sult of  stupid  incapacity  to  put  one's  self  in  the  other 
man's  place." 

No  one  has  a  right  to  ask  that  we  set  aside  justice  in 
his  favor,  or  that  we  shall  tell  lies  to  shield  him  from 
suffering  or  punishment.  But  the  Golden  Rule  de- 
mands that  justice  be  done  in  a  spirit  of  kindness,  and 
that  the  truth  be  si3oken  in  love.  We  have  only  to  put 
it  into  practice  to  convince  ourselves  how  excellent  a 


LIFE  ACCORDING   TO  THE  GOLDEN  RULE.    149 

rule  it  is.  At  home,  did  parents  and  children,  husband 
and  wife,  brother  and  sister,  mistress  and  maid,  en- 
deavor to  appreciate  each  other's  duties,  difficulties, 
burdens,  and  trials,  and  act  in  real  sympathy  ;  did  they 
enter  into  each  other's  feelings  and  thoughts,  to  help, 
to  cheer,  to  bless  and  love :  what  a  right,  true,  and 
happy  home  that  would  be  !  If  in  the  school-room  the 
teacher  is  anxious  to  help  the  scholars,  and  the  scholars 
to  help  the  teacher,  how  that  school  would  prosper  in 
the  giving  and  the  getting  of  knowledge !  In  the  rela- 
tions of  employer  and  employee,  of  buyer  and  seller,  in 
our  common  social  intercourse,  in  our  use  of  power  and 
property,  of  knowledge  and  talent  and  skill,  in  every 
place  and  in  every  time  of  human  "  life  together,"  we 
have  only  to  do  as  we  would  be  done  by,  to  realize  the 
wisdom  of  those  who  gave  the  rule  and  the  happiness 
of  those  who  have  obeyed  it. 

When  we  do  wrong  to  others  as  we  think  they  have 
done  to  us,  considering  ourselves  most  of  all,  we  live 
under  an  iron  law  of  selfishness.  When  we  only  refrain 
from  doing  what  we  should  not  wish  to  have  done  to 
ourselves,  this  may  be  called  living  under  a  silver  rule. 
But  the  one  rule  of  conduct  which  deserves  to  be  called 
Golden  says,  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  shoiild 
do  tmto  you,  even  so  do  ye  unto  them  ! 


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